II  ii    !SH1  illlH 


THE  VOICE  OF 

jljll!  |  , 

LINCOLN 


R.M.WANAMAKER 


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illlJ! 


i! 


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III 


THE  VOICE  OF  LINCOLN 


ABRAHAM   LINCOLN 

From  the  statue  by  Augustus  Saint-Gaudens  at  Chicago,  111. 


THE  VOICE  OF  LINCOLN 


BY 
R.   M.  WANAMAKER 

A  JUDGE  OF  THE  SUPREME  COURT  OF  OHIO 


NEW  YORK 

CHARLES    SCRIBNER'S    SONS 
1918 


COPYRIGHT,  1918,  BY 
CHARLES  SCRIBNER'S  SONS 

Published  March,  1918 


AFFECTIONATELY   DEDICATED   TO   THE 
MEMORY   OF   MY   MOTHER 

LAURA    SHOENBERGER    WANAMAKER 

WHO   DEPARTED   THIS   LIFE 

FEBRUARY   26,  1890 

HER   LOVE   AND   AMBITION   HAVE   BEEN   THE 
GREAT   INSPIRATION   OF   MY   LIFE 

THE   AUTHOR 


3  Q  o  j  o 


CONTENTS 

CHAPTER  PAGE 

I.  WHY  THIS  BOOK? 3 

II.  LINCOLN'S  PASSION  FOR  KNOWLEDGE    ...  5 

III.  LINCOLN'S  PASSION  FOR  KNOWLEDGE 

(CONTINUED)  14 

IV.  His  PASSION  FOR  JUSTICE 30 

V.  LINCOLN  ENTERS  POLITICS 42 

VI.  LINCOLN  ENTERS  POLITICS  (CONTINUED)     .     .  59 

VII.  LINCOLN  THE  LAWYER 77 

VIII.  LINCOLN  THE  LAWYER  (CONTINUED)      ...  94 

IX.  LINCOLN  THE  LAWYER  (CONTINUED)      .     .     .  113 

X.  LINCOLN  THE  LOGICIAN 124 

XI.  LINCOLN  THE  LOGICIAN  (CONTINUED)     .     .     .  134 

XII.  LINCOLN  LANGUAGE 155 

XIII.  LINCOLN  ON  GOVERNMENT 172 

XIV.  LINCOLN  ON  SLAVERY 188 

XV.  LINCOLN'S  INTERPRETATION  OF  THE  DECLARA 
TION  OF  INDEPENDENCE 205 

XVI.  GETTYSBURG  ORATION 218 

XVII.  LINCOLN'S  GREAT  SPRINGFIELD  SPEECH     .     .231 

XVIII.  LINCOLN  AT  COOPER  UNION 249 

XIX.  LINCOLN'S  FIRST  INAUGURAL  ADDRESS  .     .     .  280 

XX.  LINCOLN  THE  LEADER  .  297 


viii  CONTENTS 

CHAPTER  PAQE 

XXI.  LINCOLN  THE  LEADER  (CONTINUED)       .     .     .  310 

XXII.  LINCOLN  ON  PEACE 3 

XXIII.  LINCOLN  THE  MOST  UNSELFISH  MAN    .     .     .  345 

XXIV.  LINCOLN'S  MISCELLANEOUS  VIEWS   ....  350 


THE  VOICE  OF  LINCOLN 


CHAPTER  I 
WHY  THIS  BOOK? 

MOST  of  us  have  a  smattering  of  the  life  of  Lincoln, 
many  of  us  have  made  a  general  surface  study  of  it. 
But  Lincoln  lived  in  the  subsoil  of  human  thought 
and  soul.  He  dug  down  deep  into  every  subject-matter 
claiming  his  attention.  If  we  would  know  and  ap 
preciate  him  we  too  must  dig  down  deep  among  the 
roots,  the  foundations,  of  his  personal,  professional, 
and  public  life. 

He  lived  largely  in  the  world  of  thought.  How  he 
thought,  what  his  mental  methods  were,  how  he 
developed  his  great  mental  efficiency  in  law,  logic, 
language,  and  public  leadership,  should  be  a  matter 
of  interest  and  inspiration  to  that  great  army  of  men 
and  women  who  have  learned  to  love  Lincoln. 

This  is  an  era  of  efficiency.  We  all  understand 
physical  efficiency,  industrial  efficiency,  financial  effi 
ciency,  and  the  like,  and  rapidly  we  are  coming 
to  understand  something  of  educational  efficiency. 

Lincoln's  life  is  a  demonstration  of  the  highest  type 
of  efficiency  for  every  situation  he  met. 

How  did  he  attain  it  ? 

Humility's  child,  he  became  humanity's  man.    How  ? 

How  did  this  backwoods  boy  become  a  master  of 
men? 

How  did  he  pass  from  the  pioneer  life,  with  all  the 
privation  and  primitiveness  of  the  frontier,  and  grow 

3 


4  THE  VOICE  OF  LINCOLN 

to  be  the  greatest  lawyer  of  his  State,  the  greatest  or 
ator  of  his  day,  and  the  greatest  statesman  of  his  age  ? 

In  short,  what  was  the  paramount  philosophy  of 
his  life,  as  gathered  from  what  he  said,  from  what  he 
did,  from  how  he  lived  and  how  he  died? 

To  answer  some  of  these  questions,  as  they  have 
not  been  answered  heretofore,  is  the  primary  and  para 
mount  purpose  of  this  volume. 

To  this  end  I  have  selected  and  assembled  from  the 
authenticated  records  as  compiled  by  others  the  signif 
icant  and  symptomatic  facts  of  his  life,  and  have  ex 
amined  carefully  his  words  and  works. 

I  want  to  present  what  I  conceive  to  be,  not  merely 
his  creed  but  his  code  of  conduct,  with  his  chart,  com 
pass,  and  chain;  and  how  he  used  this  chart,  compass, 
and  chain  in  each  day's  duties,  particularly  as  a  lawyer 
at  Springfield  and  as  President  at  Washington. 

But  more  important  than  all  else  is  to  present  to 
young  America,  and  to  the  world,  our  type  of  true 
Americanism. 

History,  after  all,  is  only  the  sum  of  big  biography, 
the  product  of  the  leadership  and  life  of  the  great  men 
with  benevolent  ideas  and  ideals  that  preserve  and 
promote  our  American  institutions,  our  spirit  of  lib 
erty  and  democracy  practically  applied. 

We  can  best  study  Americanism  through  some  great 
American,  and  in  the  foregoing  respects,  by  common 
consent,  at  home  and  abroad,  the  name  of  Lincoln 
leads  all  the  rest.  We  are  told  that  the  world  must 
be  made  "safe  for  democracy." 

But  what  is  democracy?  Who  better  understood 
and  expressed  it  than  Lincoln?  What  were  his  views 
on  government,  its  powers,  its  purposes?  That  is, 
what  did  Lincoln  himself  say  about  it? 


CHAPTER  II 
LINCOLN'S  PASSION  FOR  KNOWLEDGE 

"A  wise  man  is  strong;  yea,  a  man  of  knowledge  increaseth 
strength." — Proverbs  24  :  5. 

WITHIN  a  twelvemonth,  within  a  circle  described 
by  a  fifty-mile  radius,  there  were  born  in  the  State  of 
Kentucky  two  boys  destined  to  be  the  great  popular 
leaders  on  the  opposite  sides  of  a  great  cause — Abra 
ham  Lincoln  and  Jefferson  Davis. 

When  quite  young,  Davis  moved  south  to  Missis 
sippi,  to  slavery  and  aristocracy;  Lincoln  moved  north 
to  Indiana  and  Illinois,  to  liberty  and  democracy.  Had 
their  routes  been  reversed,  then  what? 

Davis  was  educated  at  a  college  in  Mississippi, 
Transylvania  University  at  Lexington,  Ky.,  and  later 
was  graduated  at  West  Point. 

Lincoln  never  spent  a  day  in  a  public  school  or  col 
lege. 

How,  then,  did  he  become  the  leading  lawyer  of 
Illinois,  the  only  man  of  his  State  who  dared  to  de 
bate  with  Douglas? 

How  did  he  become  the  logician  at  Cooper  Union, 
the  orator  at  Gettysburg,  the  emancipator  of  a  race, 
the  savior  of  a  country,  and  the  idol  of  the  patriotic 
world? 

Great  men,  as  a  rule,  have  had  great  mothers  rather 
than  great  fathers.  This  was  peculiarly  true  as  to  Lin 
coln.  Though  his  mother  died  when  he  was  but  nine 

5 


6  THE  VOICE  OF  LINCOLN 

years  of  age,  she  had  given  him  the  blessings  of  her 
meagre  education,  had  helped  him  to  read  and  write, 
had  inspired  him  with  a  love  for  learning,  and  left  such 
mental  and  moral  impress  upon  the  lad  that  he  after 
ward  said: 

"All  that  I  am  and  all  that  I  hope  to  be,  I  owe  to 
my  angel  mother.  Blessings  on  her  memory." 

Herndon,*  in  his  biography,  relates  an  intimate 
talk  that  he  once  had  with  Lincoln  concerning  the 
latter's  mother: 

"She  was  the  daughter  of  Lucy  Hanks  and  a  well- 
bred  but  obscure  Virginia  farmer  or  planter,  and  he 
(Lincoln)  argued  that  from  this  last  source  came  his 
power  of  analysis,  his  logic,  his  mental  activity,  his 
ambition,  and  all  the  qualities  that  distinguished  him 
from  the  other  members  and  descendants  of  the  Hanks 
family."  f 

Perhaps  the  longest  personal  statement  he  ever  made 
concerning  himself  was  made  to  J.  W.  Fell,  in  1859, 
in  his  own  handwriting: 

"I  was  bom  February  12,  1809,  in  Hardin  county, 
Kentucky.  My  parents  were  both  born  in  Virginia, 
of  undistinguished  families — second  families,  perhaps 
I  should  say.  My  mother,  who  died  in  my  tenth  year, 


*  I  shall  very  often  quote  from  William  H.  Herndon's  biography  of 
Lincoln  in  two  volumes.  This  biography  furnishes  the  basis  of  Lin 
coln's  life  until  he  became  President  of  the  United  States,  and  furnishes 
the  basis  of  most  of  the  reliable  facts  of  Lincoln's  life  as  used  by  other 
biographers. 

Members  of  Herndon's  family  lived  in  and  about  New  Salem,  and 
Herndon  himself  became  acquainted  with  Lincoln  shortly  after  he  en 
tered  the  State  Legislature  at  Springfield.  He  was  the  junior  partner 
of  Lincoln  from  1843  until  March  4,  1861.  Taken  altogether,  he  had 
unusual  opportunities  to  know  and  study  Abraham  Lincoln,  and  to 
write  about  him  at  first  hand.  Moreover,  no  one  ever  accused  Herndon 
of  overstating  anything  in  Lincoln's  favor. 

t  Vol.  I,  p.  3. 


LINCOLN'S  PASSION  FOR  KNOWLEDGE    7 

was  of  a  family  by  the  name  of  Hanks.  .  .  .  My  pa 
ternal  grandfather,  Abraham  Lincoln,  emigrated  from 
Rockingham  county,  Virginia,  to  Kentucky  about 
1781  or  1782,  where,  a  year  or  two  later,  he  was  killed 
by  the  Indians,  not  in  battle,  but  by  stealth,  when 
he  was  laboring  to  open  a  farm  in  the  forest. 

"My  father  (Thomas  Lincoln)  at  the  death  of  his 
father  was  but  six  years  of  age.  By  the  early  death 
of  his  father,  and  the  very  narrow  circumstances  of 
his  mother,  he  was,  even  in  childhood,  a  wandering, 
laboring  boy,  and  grew  up  literally  without  education. 
He  never  did  more  in  the  way  of  writing  than  bung- 
lingly  to  write  his  own  name.  .  .  .  He  removed  from 
Kentucky  to  what  is  now  Spencer  county,  Indiana, 
in  my  eighth  year.  ...  It  was  a  wild  region,  with 
many  bears  and  other  animals  still  in  the  woods.  .  .  . 
There  were  some  schools,  so-called,  but  no  qualifica 
tion  was  ever  required  of  a  teacher  beyond  'readin' 
writing  and  cipherin'  to  the  rule  of  three/  If  a 
straggler  supposed  to  understand  Latin  happened  to 
sojourn  in  the  neighborhood  he  was  looked  upon  as  a 
wizard.  ...  Of  course,  when  I  came  of  age  I  did  not 
know  much.  Still,  somehow,  I  could  read,  write,  and 
cipher  to  the  rule  of  three.  But  that  was  all.  .  .  . 
The  little  advance  I  now  have  upon  this  store  of  educa 
tion  I  have  picked  up  from  time  to  time  under  the 
pressure  of  necessity. 

"I  was  raised  to  farm  work  .  .  .  till  I  was  twenty- 
two.  At  twenty-one  I  came  to  Illinois, — Macon 
county.  Then  I  got  to  New  Salem,  .  .  .  where  I  re 
mained  a  year  as  a  sort  of  clerk  in  a  store.  Then  came 
the  Black  Hawk  war;  and  I  was  elected  captain  of 
a  volunteer  company,  a  success  that  gave  me  more 
pleasure  than  any  I  have  had  since.  I  went  into  the 


8  THE  VOICE  OF  LINCOLN 

campaign — was  elated — ran  for  the  Legislature  the 
same  year  (1832),  and  was  beaten — the  only  time  I 
ever  have  been  beaten  by  the  people.  The  next,  and 
three  succeeding  biennial  elections,  I  was  elected  to 
the  Legislature.  I  was  not  a  candidate  afterward. 
During  the  legislative  period  I  had  studied  law  and 
removed  to  Springfield  to  practice  it.  In  1846  I  was 
elected  to  the  lower  house  of  Congress.  Was  not  a 
candidate  for  re-election.  From  1849  to  1854,  inclu 
sive,  practised  law  more  assiduously  than  ever  before. 
Always  a  Whig  in  politics,  and  generally  on  the  Whig 
electoral  tickets,  making  active  canvasses.  I  was  losing 
interest  in  politics  when  the  repeal  of  the  Missouri 
Compromise  aroused  me  again. 

"If  any  personal  description  of  me  is  thought  de 
sirable,  it  may  be  said  that  I  am  in  height  six  feet  four 
inches,  nearly;  lean  in  flesh,  weighing  on  an  average 
one  hundred  and  eighty  pounds;  dark  complexion, 
with  coarse  black  hair  and  gray  eyes.  No  other  marks 
or  brands  recollected." 

An  unusually  modest  estimate  of  one  who  within 
a  year  was  to  be  elected  President  of  the  United 
States. 

This  scarcely  reads  like  the  story  of  one  who  had  a 
"passion  for  knowledge.'' 

After  Lincoln's  nomination  for  the  presidency,  he 
was  repeatedly  requested  to  furnish  for  his  friends 
and  biographers  the  story  of  his  life. 

One  of  the  earliest  to  arrive  at  Springfield,  111., 
was  J.  L.  Scripps  of  the  Chicago  Tribune,  a  paper  very 
friendly  to  Lincoln.  Scripps  wanted  to  prepare  and 
publish  the  story  of  his  life. 

"  Why,  Scripps,"  said  he,  "  it  is  a  great  piece  of  folly 
to  attempt  to  make  anything  out  of  me  or  my  early 


LINCOLN'S  PASSION  FOR  KNOWLEDGE     9 

life.     It  can  all  be  condensed  into  a  single  sentence, 
and  that  sentence  you  will  find  in  Gray's  '  Elegy.' 

'"The  short  and  simple  annals  of  the  poor.' 

"That's  my  life  and  that's  all  that  you  or  anybody 
else  can  make  out  of  it."  * 

For  the  purpose  of  knowing  more  about  the  metal 
in  his  making,  than  this  modest  man  has  himself  given 
us,  a  fuller  statement  will  be  made  of  his  earlier  as 
well  as  later  days. 

Lincoln  was  born  in  a  log  cabin  of  Kentucky,  near 
Hodgenville — a  cabin  that  was  doorless,  windowless, 
and  floorless.  Oh,  of  course,  it  had  a  floor.  It  was 
dirt  furnished  by  good  old  Mother  Earth. 

If  there  was  any  log  cabin  in  Kentucky  ruder  or 
more  primitive  than  the  Lincoln  cabin,  it  has  not  been 
discovered. 

But  few  incidents  of  consequence  occurred  in  Ken 
tucky  that  are  really  important  or  indicative  of  char 
acter  in  the  boy's  life.  He  several  times  heard  Parson 
Elkins  preach,  the  Baptist  minister  of  that  circuit. 
The  probabilities  are  this  gave  him  his  first  inspira 
tion  for  public  speaking. 

As  to  schools,  they  were  few  and  four  miles  at  least 
from  home.  Two  or  three  months  at  most  would 
cover  the  entire  time  at  irregular  intervals  that  he  re 
ceived  the  benefit  of  even  the  most  elementary 
teachers. 

When  young  Abraham  was  but  seven,  the  Lincoln 
family  moved  to  what  is  now  Spencer  County,  in 
southern  Indiana,  just  north  of  the  Ohio  River. 

The  first  family  residence  in  Indiana  was  but  little, 

*  Herndon,  vol.  I,  p.  2. 


10  THE  VOICE   OF  LINCOLN 

if  any,  improvement  over  the  home  in  Kentucky.  It 
was  scarcely  creditable  to  a  carpenter's  handiwork. 

Herndon  says: 

"The  structure  when  completed  was  fourteen  feet 
square  and  was  built  of  small  unhewn  logs.  In  the 
language  of  the  day  it  was  called  a  'half  faced  camp/ 
being  enclosed  on  all  sides  but  one.  It  had  neither 
floor,  door,  nor  windows.  In  this  forbidding  hovel 
these  doughty  emigrants  braved  the  exposure  of  the 
varying  seasons  for  an  entire  year.  At  the  end  of  that 
time  Thomas  and  Betsy  Sparrow  followed,  bringing 
with  them  Dennis  Hanks  and  to  them  Thomas  Lincoln 
surrendered  the  'half  faced  camp'  while  he  moved 
into  a  more  pretentious  structure, — a  cabin  enclosed 
on  all  sides."  * 

This  cabin  is  further  described  by  Herndon  as  fol 
lows  : 

"It  was  of  hewed  logs,  and  was  eighteen  feet  square. 
It  was  high  enough  to  admit  of  a  loft,  where  Abe  slept, 
and  to  which  he  ascended  each  night  by  means  of  pegs 
driven  in  the  wall.  The  rude  furniture  was  in  keeping 
with  the  surroundings.  Three-legged  stools  answered 
for  chairs.  The  bedstead,  made  of  poles  fastened  in 
the  cracks  of  the  logs  on  one  side,  and  supported  by 
a  crotched  stick  driven  in  the  ground  floor  on  the  other, 
was  covered  with  skins,  leaves,  and  old  clothes.  A 
table  of  the  same  finish  as  the  stools,  a  few  pewter 
dishes,  a  Dutch  oven,  and  a  skillet  completed  the  house 
hold  outfit.  In  this  uninviting  frontier  structure  the 
future  President  was  destined  to  pass  the  greater  part 
of  his  boyhood.'7  f 

Holland  confirms  this  account  in  the  following 
language : 

*  Herndon,  vol.  I,  p.  19.  f  Herndon,  vol.  I,  p.  20. 


LINCOLN'S   PASSION  FOR  KNOWLEDGE     11 

"It  is  very  difficult  for  any  one  bred  in  the  older 
communities  of  the  country  to  appreciate  the  extreme 
humility  of  border  life,  the  meagerness  and  meanness 
of  its  household  appointments,  and  the  paucity  of  its 
stimulants  to  mental  growth  and  social  development. 
The  bed  in  which  the  elder  Lincolns,  and,  on  very  cold 
nights,  the  little  Lincolns,  slept,  during  their  first 
years  in  Indiana,  was  one  whose  rudeness  will  give  a 
key  to  the  kind  of  life  which  they  lived  there.  The 
head  and  one  side  of  the  bedstead  were  formed  by 
an  angle  of  the  cabin  itself.  The  bed-post  standing 
out  into  the  room  was  a  single  crotch,  cut  from  the 
forest.  Laid  upon  this  crotch  were  the  ends  of  two 
hickory  sticks,  whose  other  extremities  were  morticed 
into  the  logs,  the  two  sides  of  the  cabin  and  the  two 
rails  embracing  a  quadrilateral  space  of  the  required 
dimensions.  This  was  bridged  by  slats  ' rived7  from 
the  forest  log,  and  on  the  slats  was  laid  a  sack  filled 
with  dried  leaves.  This  was,  in  reality,  the  bed  of 
Thomas  and  Nancy  Lincoln."  * 

In  the  midst  of  such  primitve  and  unfavorable 
surroundings,  the  boy  really  began  his  mental  and 
moral  development:  Not  at  any  private  school  for 
boys,  not  at  any  academy,  college,  high  school,  or 
even  the  most  elementary  public  school,  but  solely 
with  the  help  of  his  mother,  the  few  books  that  he 
could  borrow  in  the  neighborhood,  and  occasionally 
some  transient  teacher  for  a  month  or  two. 

Some  still  small  voice  within  seemed  to  command 
him  like  Paul  did  Timothy  of  old: 

"Stir  the  gift  of  God  which  is  within  thee." 

What  these  gifts  were  and  how  he  stirred  them  in 
his  boyhood  life  should  be  of  special  interest. 

*  Holland,  p.  28. 


12  THE  VOICE   OF   LINCOLN 

Somehow  or  other  in  some  quarters  Lincoln  has 
been  regarded  as  the  accident  of  genius,  as  a  mere 
backwoods  boor,  ignorant  and  unschooled,  but  prov 
identially  endowed  in  some  miraculous  way,  with  un 
common  common  sense,  with  almost  divine  wisdom, 
with  a  genius  for  logic  and  language  that  persuaded 
men  against  their  will,  and  a  godlike  prescience. 

Nothing  could  be  farther  from  the  truth. 

The  greatest  gift  with  which  nature  endowed  him, 
that  was  practically  the  parent  of  all  others,  was  not 
a  mere  desire  for  knowledge,  a  thirst  for  truth,  but  a 
perfect  passion  for  learning,  for  knowledge. 

It  would  be  unsafe  to  judge  most  men  upon  their 
own  estimates.  The  bill  of  lading  would  surprisingly 
exceed  the  quality  and  quantity  of  goods  delivered. 
Not  so  with  Lincoln. 

And  as  it  is  the  purpose  of  this  volume  merely  to 
interpret  Lincoln  from  what  he  has  said,  from  what 
he  has  done,  I  shall  give  here  his  own  version  of  his 
"  passion  for  knowledge." 

After  his  delivery  of  the  great  Cooper  Institute 
speech  in  New  York,  February  27,  1860,  he  made  a 
short  trip  through  New  England,  in  which  he  aroused 
great  public  interest,  both  as  to  the  man  and  his 
message. 

A  leading  paper  contained  the  following  interview 
with  him: 

"Well,  as  to  education,  the  newspapers  are  correct. 
I  never  went  to  school  more  than  six  months  in  my 
life.  I  can  say  this:  that  among  my  earliest  recollec 
tions  I  remember  how,  when  a  mere  child,  I  used  to 
get  irritated  when  anybody  talked  to  me  in  a  way  that 
I  could  not  understand.  I  can  remember  going  to  my 
little  bedroom,  after  hearing  the  neighbors  talk  of  an 


LINCOLN'S  PASSION  FOR  KNOWLEDGE    13 

evening  with  my  father,  and  spending  no  small  part 
of  the  night  trying  to  make  out  what  was  the  exact 
meaning  of  some  of  their,  to  me,  dark  sayings. 

"I  could  not  sleep,  although  I  tried  to,  when  I  got 
on  such  a  hunt  for  an  idea  until  I  had  caught  it;  and 
when  I  thought  I  had  got  it  I  was  not  satisfied  until 
I  had  repeated  it  over  and  over  again,  until  I  had  put 
it  in  language  plain  enough,  as  I  thought,  for  any  boy 
I  knew  to  comprehend.  This  was  a  kind  of  passion 
with  me,  and  it  has  stuck  by  me;  for  I  am  never  easy 
now,  when  I  am  handling  a  thought,  until  I  have 
bounded  it  north  and  bounded  it  south  and  bounded 
it  east  and  bounded  it  west."  * 

No  simpler,  stronger  statement  could  be  made  of 
his  paramount  passion  for  knowledge,  his  self-reliant 
methods  of  research  and  reason  upon  his  own  re 
sources,  f 

*  Curtis,  p.  59. 

f  Doctor  E.  C.  Moore,  formerly  professor  of  education  in  Harvard 
University,  in  his  treatise  on  "What  is  Education,"  at  page  24  says: 
"Education  is  determined  by  what  the  student  does.  A  single  subject 
which  has  been  pursued  in  such  a  way  that  he  has  learned  to  stand  on 
his  own  feet,  and  use  his  own  mind  in  the  getting  and  solving  of  its  prob 
lems  provides  a  more  real  education  than  a  whole  college  course  in  which 
one  has  merely  endeavored  to  appropriate  the  thoughts  of  other  men,  or 
tried  to  become  a  thinker  without  thinking  about  anything  which  seemed 
to  require  thought." 


CHAPTER   III 

LINCOLN'S  PASSION  FOR  KNOWLEDGE 

(CONTINUED) 

LINCOLN  was  his  own  schoolmaster  in  the  rudiments 
of  knowledge,  in  law,  and  in  government.  What  a 
teacher !  What  a  pupil !  What  results ! 

This  master  man  gave  us  his  method,  and  his  formula 
of  self -education  in  the  interview  just  quoted.  Later 
in  a  succeeding  chapter,  in  his  advice  to  a  law  student, 
he  tells  us  to  "work,  work,  work."  No  matter  what 
the  educational  method  may  be,  in  its  last  analysis 
it  will  be  found,  as  Euclid  said:  " There  is  no  royal 
road  to  learning." 

Let  us  examine  Lincoln's  own  formula  as  to  its  ele 
ments,  and  as  to  where  and  how  he  applied  them. 

Now,  where  did  Lincoln  "hunt"  for  his  ideas? 
What  did  he  repeat  over  and  over  again  and  put  in 
language  "plain  enough,  as  I  thought,  for  any  boy  I 
knew  to  comprehend,"  and  where  did  he  get  the 
thoughts  which  he  says  he  "bounded  north  and 
bounded  south  and  bounded  east  and  bounded  west," 
as  appeared  in  the  New  York  interview  cited  in  the 
last  chapter? 

He  was  as  poor  in  number  of  books  as  he  was  rich 
in  the  nature  of  books.  His  library,  chiefly  borrowed, 
was  composed  of  the  Bible,  Bunyan's  "Pilgrim's  Prog 
ress,"  "^Esop's  Fables,"  DeFoe's  "Robinson  Crusoe," 
Weems's  "Life  of  Washington,"  a  "History  of  the 
United  States  "  and  the  dictionary. 

14 


LINCOLN'S  PASSION  FOR  KNOWLEDGE     15 

And  yet  what  a  library  for  a  liberal  and  efficient 
education — at  least  the  foundation  of  an  education. 

What  boy  ever  had  a  better  set  of  text-books  for 
learning  and  language,  for  conscience  and  character, 
than  these? 

These  books  he  read  and  reread,  studied  and  re- 
studied,  until  he  knew  them  from  cover  to  cover.  He 
literally  devoured  them  and  assimilated  them  into  his 
mind,  as  he  assimilated  food  into  his  body. 

While  working  in  the  field  at  odd  moments,  or  be 
tween  errands  in  the  home,  or  between  customers  in 
the  store,  whenever  he  had  a  leisure  moment,  the  Bible, 
or  Bunyan,  or  the  dictionary  was  always  at  his  elbow. 

In  addition  to  these  books  he  was  a  constant  and 
regular  reader  of  the  best  newspapers  of  the  day. 

Herndon*  says: 

"He  was  a  careful  and  patient  reader  of  newspapers, 
the  Sangamon  Journal — published  at  Springfield — 
Louisville  Journal,  St.  Louis  Republican,  and  Cincin 
nati  Gazette  being  usually  within  his  reach/' 

Abe  not  only  had  the  handicap  of  no  schools  in  the 
neighborhood,  no  books  in  the  home,  but  also  the  lack 
of  interest,  and  even  opposition,  of  the  father  to  his 
employment  in  books  rather  than  in  the  field. 

As  appears  in  Lincoln's  written  statement  to  Fell  in 
the  preceding  chapter: 

"He,  the  father,  grew  up  literally  without  educa 
tion.  He  never  did  more  in  the  way  of  writing  than 
bunglingly  to  write  his  own  name."  (His  wife  had 
taught  him  to  do  this.) 

This  illiteracy  upon  the  part  of  the  father  exhibited 
itself  in  a  strong  opposition  to  the  boy's  education. 
The  father's  general  shiftlessness  and  business  inef- 
*  Vol.  I,  p.  104. 


16  THE  VOICE  OF  LINCOLN 

ficiency  made  constant  demands  upon  the  big,  hardy 
boy  to  work,  not  only  in  the  father's  fields  when  he 
ought  to  have  been  at  school,  but  also  to  work  at  wage 
for  the  neighbors  in  order  to  furnish  funds  for  the 
father's  deficiencies. 

I  am  entirely  aware  that  Doctor  Holland  takes  the 
opposite  view. 

He  says: 

"Among  the  most  untoward  circumstances  Thomas 
Lincoln  embraced  every  opportunity  to  give  Abraham 
an  education." 

The  overwhelming  evidence  is  to  the  contrary,  as 
shown  in  almost  every  other  leading  biography. 

Herndon*  says: 

"Abe's  love  for  books,  and  his  determined  effort 
to  obtain  an  education  in  spite  of  so  many  obstacles, 
induced  the  belief  in  his  father's  mind,  that  book- 
learning  was  absorbing  a  greater  proportion  of  his 
energy  and  industry  than  the  demands  of  the  farm. 
The  old  gentleman  had  but  little  faith  in  the  value 
of  books  or  papers,  and  hence  the  frequent  drafts  he 
made  on  the  son  to  aid  in  the  drudgery  of  daily  toil." 

Mrs.  Thomas  Lincoln,  in  a  statement  made  under 
date  of  September  8,  1865,  as  noted  by  Herndon,  says: 

"I  induced  my  husband  to  permit  Abe  to  read  and 
study  at  home  as  well  as  at  school.  At  first  he  was 
not  easily  reconciled  to  it,  but  finally  he  too  seemed 
willing  to  encourage  him  to  a  certain  extent." 

Indeed,  this  was  the  chief  bone  of  unpleasantness 
between  father  and  son,  and  they  never  afterward 
seemed  to  sustain  that  affectionate  relation  that  Abra 
ham's  nature,  deportment,  and  rapid  rise  to  fame  should 
have  abundantly  justified. 

*Vol.  I,  p.  33. 


LINCOLN'S  PASSION  FOR  KNOWLEDGE    17 

Lincoln  himself  evidently  refers  to  the  strained  re 
lations  between  him  and  the  father  in  a  letter  that  he 
wrote  to  John  Johnston,  a  stepbrother,  in  1851,  just 
prior  to  his  father's  death. 

In  this  letter  he  said,  among  other  things: 

".  .  .  You  already  know  I  desire  that  neither  father 
nor  mother  shall  be  in  want  of  any  comfort,  either  in 
health  or  sickness,  while  they  live;  and  I  feel  sure 
you  have  not  failed  to  use  my  name,  if  necessary,  to 
procure  a  doctor  or  any  thing  else  for  father  in  his 
present  sickness.  My  business  is  such  that  I  could 
hardly  leave  home  now,  if  it  were  not,  as  it  is,  that 
my  own  wife  is  sick-a-bed.  ...  I  sincerely  hope 
father  may  yet  recover  his  health;  but,  at  all  events, 
tell  him  to  remember  to  call  upon  and  confide  in  our 
great  and  good  and  merciful  Maker,  who  will  not  turn 
away  from  him  in  any  extremity.  He  notes  the  fall 
of  a  sparrow,  and  numbers  the  hairs  of  our  heads;  and 
he  will  not  forget  the  dying  man  who  puts  his  trust 
in  him.  Say  to  him,  that  if  we  could  meet  now,  it  is 
doubtful  whether  it  would  not  be  more  painful  than 
pleasant;  but  that,  if  it  be  his  lot  to  go  now,  he  will 
soon  have  a  joyous  meeting  with  loved  ones  gone  be 
fore,  and  where  the  rest  of  us,  through  the  help  of  God, 
hope  ere  long  to  join  them. 

"  Write  me  again  when  you  receive  this. 

"  Affectionately, 

"  A.  LINCOLN." 

When  the  boy  was  in  his  tenth  year,  his  dear  de 
voted  mother  died.  Within  a  year  or  two  the  father 
took  unto  himself  another  wife,  a  widow  by  the  name 
of  Sarah  Bush  Johnston,  who  then  lived  in  Kentucky. 


18  .THE   VOICE  OF  LINCOLN 

She  had  been  courted  by  Thomas  Lincoln  before  he 
had  married  Nancy  Hanks. 

The  coming  of  Sarah  Bush  Johnston  into  the  Illinois 
home  made  a  great  change.  The  home,  through  her 
effort  and  insistence,  was  greatly  improved,  as  far  as 
their  means  would  allow.  The  boy  was  again  given 
a  mother's  care,  and  as  already  noted,  the  new  mother 
overcame  much  of  the  opposition  of  the  father  against 
the  education  of  young  Abraham.  More  than  that, 
this  stepmother  read  and  studied  with  him,  and  con 
trary  to  the  usual  rule,  there  was  a  sweeter,  tenderer 
relation  between  them  than  there  was  between  her 
and  her  own  children. 

Herndon*  gives  us  a  very  clear  and  detailed  ac 
count  of  the  influence  of  the  second  Mrs.  Lincoln  upon 
their  primitive  home  in  Indiana.  He  says: 

"The  new  Mrs.  Lincoln  was  accompanied  by  her 
three  children,  John,  Sarah,  and  Matilda.  Her  social 
status  is  fixed  by  the  comparison  of  a  neighbor,  who 
observed  that  'life  among  the  Hankses,  the  Lincolns, 
and  the  Enlows  was  a  long  ways  below  life  among  the 
Bushes.' 

"In  the  eyes  of  her  spouse  she  could  not  be  regarded 
as  a  poor  widow.  She  was  the  owner  of  a  goodly  stock 
of  furniture  and  household  goods;  bringing  with  her 
among  other  things  a  walnut  bureau  valued  at  fifty 
dollars.  What  effect  the  new  family,  their  collection 
of  furniture,  cooking  utensils,  and  comfortable  bedding 
must  have  had  on  the  astonished  and  motherless  pair 
who  from  the  door  of  Thomas  Lincoln's  forlorn  cabin 
watched  the  well-filled  wagon  as  it  came  creaking 
through  the  woods  can  better  be  imagined  than  de 
scribed.  Surely  Sarah  and  Abe,  as  the  stores  of  sup 
plies  were  rolled  in  through  the  doorless  doorways, 
*  Vol.  I,  p.  27. 


LINCOLN'S   PASSION  FOR   KNOWLEDGE     19 

must  have  believed  that  a  golden  future  awaited  them. 
The  presence  and  smile  of  a  motherly  face  in  the  cheer 
less  cabin  radiated  sunshine  into  every  neglected  corner. 
If  the  Lincoln  mansion  did  not  in  every  respect  corre 
spond  to  the  representations  made  by  its  owner  to 
the  new  Mrs.  Lincoln  before  marriage,  the  latter  gave 
no  expression  of  disappointment  or  even  surprise.  With 
true  womanly  courage  and  zeal  she  set  resolutely  to 
work  to  make  right  that  which  seemed  wrong.  Her 
husband  was  made  to  put  a  floor  in  the  cabin,  as  well 
as  to  supply  doors  and  windows.  The  cracks  between 
the  logs  were  plastered  up.  A  clothes-press  filled  the 
space  between  the  chimney  jamb  and  the  wall,  and 
the  mat  of  corn  husks  and  leaves  on  which  the  children 
had  slept  in  the  corner  gave  way  to  the  comfortable 
luxuriance  of  a  feather  bed.  She  washed  the  two  or 
phans,  and  fitted  them  out  in  clothes  taken  from  the 
stores  of  her  own.  The  work  of  renovation  in  and 
around  the  cabin  continued  until  even  Thomas  Lin 
coln  himself,  under  the  general  stimulus  of  the  new 
wife's  presence,  caught  the  inspiration,  and  developed 
signs  of  intense  activity.  The  advent  of  Sarah  Bush 
was  certainly  a  red-letter  day  for  the  Lincolns.  She 
was  not  only  industrious  and  thrifty,  but  gentle  and 
affectionate;  and  her  newly  adopted  children  for  the 
first  time,  perhaps,  realized  the  benign  influence  of 
a  mother's  love.  Of  young  Abe  she  was  especially 
fond,  and  we  have  her  testimony  that  her  kindness 
and  care  for  him  were  warmly  and  bountifully  re 
turned." 

One  of  the  last  things  done  by  Lincoln  before  he 
left  Springfield  for  Washington  in  February,  1861, 
was  to  go  out  and  call  on  his  grand  old  stepmother, 
and  the  story  of  their  meeting  and  parting  is  one  of 
the  sweetest,  tenderest  memories  of  his  life. 


20  THE  VOICE  OF  LINCOLN 

This  insatiable  thirst  for  knowledge,  unquenched 
and  unquenchable,  as  against  poverty  and  parental 
opposition,  is  noted  frequently  by  his  many  biog 
raphers. 

Herndon*  says: 

"The  foundation  for  his  education  was  laid  in  In 
diana  and  in  the  little  town  of  New  Salem  in  Illinois, 
and  in  both  places  he  gave  evidence  of  a  nature  and 
characteristics  that  distinguished  him  from  every  as 
sociate  and  surrounding  he  had.  He  was  not  peculiar 
or  eccentric,  and  yet  a  shrewd  observer  would  have 
seen  that  he  was  decidedly  unique  and  original.  Al 
though  imbued  with  a  marked  dislike  for  manual  labor 
(Lincoln  once  said  that  his  father  taught  him  farm 
work  but  never  taught  him  to  love  it),  it  cannot  be 
truthfully  said  of  him  that  he  was  indolent.  From 
a  mental  standpoint  he  was  one  of  the  most  energetic 
young  men  of  his  day.  He  dwelt  altogether  in  the 
land  of  thought.  His  deep  meditation  and  abstrac 
tion  easily  induced  the  belief  among  his  horny-handed 
companions  that  he  was  lazy.  .  .  .  His  chief  delight 
during  the  day,  if  unmolested,  was  to  lie  down  under 
the  shade  of  some  inviting  tree  and  read  and  study. 
At  night,  lying  on  his  stomach  in  front  of  the  open 
fireplace  with  a  piece  of  charcoal  he  would  cipher  on 
a  broad  wooden  shovel.  .  .  .  His  stepmother  told 
me  he  devoured  everything  in  the  book  line  within 
his  reach.  If  in  reading  he  came  across  anything  that 
pleased  his  fancy,  he  entered  it  down  in  a  copy-book 
— a  sort  of  repository,  in  which  he  was  wont  to  store 
everything  worthy  of  preservation." 

Herndon  further  says  in  the  same  connection: 

"Whenever  Abe  had  a  chance  in  the  field  while  at 
"Vol.  I,  pp.  36-39. 


LINCOLN'S   PASSION   FOR  KNOWLEDGE     21 

work,  or  at  the  house,  he  would  stop  and  read.  He 
kept  the  Bible  and  '^Esop's  Fables '  always  within 
reach,  and  read  them  over  and  over  again." 

Even  Colonel  Lamon,  in  his  biography,  says: 

"Abe  loved  to  lie  under  a  shade  tree  or  up  in  the 
loft  of  the  cabin  and  read,  cipher,  or  scribble  at  night. 
He  sat  by  the  chimney  jamb  and  ciphered  by  the  light 
of  the  fire  on  the  wooden  fire  shovel.  When  the  shovel 
was  fairly  covered  he  would  shave  it  off  with  Tom 
Lincoln's  drawing  knife  and  begin  again.  At  day  time 
he  used  boards  for  the  same  purpose  out  of  doors  and 
went  through  the  shaving  process  everlastingly.  His 
stepmother  repeats  often  that  'He  read  every  book 
that  he  could  lay  his  hands  on/  She  says  'Abe  read 
diligently  every  book  he  could  lay  his  hands  on  and 
when  he  came  across  a  passage  that  struck  him  he 
would  write  it  down  on  boards  if  he  had  no  paper,  keep 
it  there  until  he  did  get  some  paper,  then  he  would 
rewrite  it,  repeat  it.  He  had  a  kind  of  copy  book,  a 
scrap  book  in  which  he  put  down  the  things  and  thus 
preserved  it." 

Lamon  further  says : 

"  Among  the  books  upon  which  Abe  laid  his  hands 
were  ^Esop's  Fables,  Robinson  Crusoe,  Bunyan's  Pil 
grim's  Progress,  a  History  of  the  United  States  and 
Weems's  Life  of  Washington.  All  these  he  read  many 
times,  transferred  extracts  from  them  to  the  boards 
and  the  scrap  book.  He  had  procured  the  scrap  book 
because  most  of  his  literature  was  borrowed  and  he 
thought  it  profitable  to  take  copious  notes  from  the 
books  before  he  returned  them.  David  Turnham 
had  bought  a  volume  of  the  Revised  Statutes  of 
Indiana.  Lincoln  borrowed  this  book  and  read  it  in 
tensely." 


22  THE  VOICE  OF  LINCOLN 

Lamon  notes  a  conversation  he  had  with  the  wife 
of  Allen  Gentry,  which  was  rather  unusual.  She 
said: 

"I  am  now  thoroughly  satisfied  that  Abe  knew  the 
general  laws  of  astronomy  and  the  movements  of  the 
heavenly  bodies.  He  was  better  read  then  than  the 
world  knows,  or  is  likely  to  know  exactly.  No  man 
could  talk  to  me  that  night  as  he  did,  unless  he  had 
known  something  of  geography  as  well  as  astronomy. 
He  often  and  often  commented  or  talked  to  me  about 
what  he  read, — seemed  to  read  it  out  of  the  book  as 
he  went  along, — did  so  to  others.  He  was  the  learned 
boy  among  us  unlearned  folks.  He  took  great  pains 
to  explain;  could  do  it  so  simply."  * 

"Of  all  these  years  of  Abraham  Lincoln's  early  child 
hood  we  know  almost  nothing.  .  .  .  He  never  talked 
of  these  days  to  his  most  intimate  friends.  .  .  .  When 
Abraham  was  seven  years  of  age  Thomas  Lincoln 
moved  with  his  family  to  Indiana  and  there  established 
a  temporary  shelter  merely  made  from  poles,  enclosed 
on  three  sides.  For  a  year  or  two  it  was  without  doors, 
windows  or  floors.  At  night  the  boy  Abraham  climbed 
to  his  bed  in  the  loft,  by  a  ladder  of  wooden  pins  driven 
into  the  logs.  ...  A  thirst  for  knowledge  as  a  means 
of  rising  in  the  world  was  innate  in  him.  ...  All  the 
little  learning  he  ever  acquired  he  seized  as  a  tool  to 
better  his  condition.  He  learned  his  letters  that  he 
might  read  books  and  see  how  men  in  the  great  world 
outside  of  his  woods  had  borne  themselves  in  the  fight 
for  which  he  longed.  He  learned  to  write,  first,  that 
he  might  have  an  accomplishment  his  playmates  had 
not;  then  that  he  might  help  his  elders  by  writing 
their  letters,  and  enjoy  the  feeling  of  usefulness  which 

*  Nicolay  and  Hay,  in  vol.  I,  pp.  27,  et  seq. 


LINCOLN'S   PASSION  FOR  KNOWLEDGE    23 

this  gave  him;  and  finally  that  he  might  copy  what 
struck  him  in  his  reading  and  thus  make  it  his  own 
for  future  use.  .  .  .  His  attendance  upon  school  was 
all  told  less  than  a  year.  .  .  .  He  read  everything 
he  could  lay  his  hands  upon,  and  he  was  certainly  for 
tunate  in  the  few  books  of  which  he  became  the 
possessor.  ...  He  read  them  over  and  over  again 
until  he  knew  them  almost  by  heart.  .  .  .  He  would 
sit  in  the  twilight  and  read  a  dictionary  as  long  as  he 
could  see.  He  used  to  go  to  David  Turnham's,  the 
town  constable,  and  devour  the  'Revised  Statutes  of 
Indiana/  as  boys  in  our  day  do  the  '  Three  Guards 
men.7  Of  the  books  he  did  not  own  he  took  voluminous 
notes,  filling  his  copy-book  with  choice  extracts,  and 
poring  over  them  until  they  were  fixed  in  his  memory. 
He  could  not  afford  to  waste  paper  upon  his  original 
compositions.  He  would  sit  by  the  fire  at  night  and 
cover  the  wooden  shovel  with  essays  and  arithmetical 
exercises,  which  he  would  shave  off  and  then  begin 
again.  It  is  touching  to  think  of  this  great-spirited 
child,  battling  year  after  year  against  his  evil  star, 
wasting  his  ingenuity  upon  devices  and  makeshifts, 
his  high  intelligence  starving  for  want  of  the  simple 
appliances  of  education  that  are  now  offered  gratis 
to  the  poorest  and  most  indifferent." 

Much  more  might  be  offered  along  the  same  line 
for  the  encouragement  of  the  poor  boy,  the  boy  with 
out  opportunity,  at  least  the  opportunity  of  high  school, 
academy,  college,  or  university. 

The  devotion  to  his  books,  the  thoroughness  of  his 
study,  the  assimilation  of  their  contents,  was  most 
unusual.  He  made  everything  that  he  read  and  studied 
a  part  of  himself.  As  the  food  he  ate  was  assimilated 
into  muscle,  so  the  books  he  read  were  assimilated 


24  THE  VOICE  OF  LINCOLN 

into  mind.  His  life  gives  added  force  to  the  old  adage, 
"  Beware  of  the  man  of  few  books." 

The  Lincoln  idea  was  to  learn  the  fundamentals, 
the  basic  truths  of  life,  intellectual,  moral,  political; 
not  merely  to  know  them,  but  to  use  them  for  his 
own  betterment,  for  the  public  enlightenment,  to  turn 
them  to  practical  account,  to  some  workable  pur 
pose. 

Doctor  Holland  strikingly  shows  us  what  this  boy 
did  with  the  things  he  learned  and  digested  from  the 
few  but  fertile  books  he  had. 

"He  became  a  writer  also.  The  majority  of  the 
settlers  around  him  were  entirely  illiterate,  and  when 
it  became  known  that  Mr.  Lincoln's  boy  could  write, 
his  services  were  in  frequent  request  by  them  in  send 
ing  epistolary  messages  to  their  friends.  In  the  com 
position  of  these  letters  his  early  habits  of  putting  the 
thoughts  of  others  as  well  as  his  own  into  language 
were  formed.  The  exercise  was,  indeed,  as  good  as 
a  school  to  him;  for  there  is  no  better  discipline,  for 
any  mind,  than  that  of  giving  definite  expression  to 
thought  in  language.  Much  of  his  subsequent  power 
as  a  writer  and  speaker  was  undoubtedly  traceable 
to  this  early  discipline." 

Doctor  Holland  further  relates  an  instance  of  Abra 
ham  when  only  nine  years  of  age  writing  a  letter  upon 
the  death  of  his  mother  to  good  old  Parson  Elkins  in 
Kentucky,  from  whom  he  got  his  first  inspiration  in 
public  speaking,  to  come  to  their  Indiana  home  and 
preach  the  funeral  sermon  in  memory  of  his  sainted 
mother.  This  the  parson  did  some  months  after. 

The  boy's  writing  material  was  very  crude.  Ink 
was  made  from  pokeberries,  pens  from  feathers,  and 
paper,  which  was  scarce,  usually  found  a  substitute 


LINCOLN'S  PASSION  FOR  KNOWLEDGE    25 

in  logs,  bark,  sand,  shingles,  and  wooden  shovels.  Abra 
ham  would  take  a  shingle  and  write  on  it  with  a  piece 
of  charcoal.  After  the  shingle  was  filled  he  would 
shave  it  off  and  write  on  it  again.  So  also  he  used  the 
old  shovel  of  the  fireplace,  writing  upon  its  burnt  wood, 
shaving  and  rewriting,  until  there  was  nothing  left 
of  the  shovel.  It  is  difficult  in  these  times  for  young 
America  with  all  their  privileges  and  opportunities 
to  realize  the  hardships  encountered  by  this  boy  in 
his  eager  efforts  to  educate  himself. 

In  addition  to  his  letter-writing  as  a  means  of  im 
proving  his  thought  and  his  language,  he  wrote  many 
compositions  that  attracted  more  than  casual  atten 
tion  from  the  people  of  the  neighborhood. 

Colonel  Lamon,  in  his  biography,  says: 

"Nat  Grigsby,  a  boyhood  friend  of  Lincoln,  says: 
'  Essays  and  poetry  were  not  taught  in  this  school 
(refering  to  Crawford's).  Abe  took  it  up  on  his  own 
account.  He  first  wrote  short  sentences  against  cruelty 
to  animals  and  at  last  came  forward  with  a  composi 
tion  on  the  subject.  He  was  very  much  annoyed  and 
pained  by  the  conduct  of  the  boys  who  were  in  the 
habit  of  catching  terrapins  and  putting  coals'  of  fire 
on  their  backs.  He  would  write  us,'  Nat  says,  'and 
tell  us  it  was  wrong  and  would  write  against  it." 

The  same  author  further  says: 

"All  sorts  of  frolics  and  all  kinds  of  popular  gather 
ings,  whether  for  work  or  amusement,  possessed  irre 
sistible  attractions  for  Abe.  He  loved  to  see  and  be 
seen,  to  make  sport  and  to  enjoy  it.  It  was  a  most 
important  part  of  his  education  that  he  got  at  the  corn- 
shuckings,  the  log-rollings,  the  shooting-matches,  and 
the  gay  and  jolly  weddings  of  those  early  border  times. 
He  was  the  only  man  or  boy  within  a  wide  compass 


26  THE  VOICE  OF  LINCOLN 

who  had  learning  enough  to  furnish  the  literature  for 
such  occasions." 

"At  Gentryville  'they  had  exhibitions  or  speaking 
meetings.7  Some  of  the  questions  they  spoke  on  were, 
The  Bee  and  the  Ant,  Water  and  Fire;  another  was, 
Which  had  the  most  right  to  complain,  the  Negro  or 
the  Indian. " 

"One  William  Wood,  a  boyhood  friend  of  Abe's, 
says  that  'Abe  was  in  the  habit  of  carrying  (his  pieces) 
to  him  for  criticism  and  encouragement.  Mr.  Wood 
took  at  least  two  newspapers,  one  of  them  devoted  to 
politics  and  one  of  them  to  temperance.  Abe  bor 
rowed  them  both  and  read  them  faithfully  over  and 
over  again,  was  inspired  with  an  ardent  desire  to  write 
something  on  the  subjects  of  which  they  treated.  He 
accordingly  composed  an  article  on  Temperance,  which 
Mr.  Wood  thought  excelled  for  sound  sense  anything 
that  the  paper  contained.  Abe  then  tried  his  hand 
on  national  politics,  saying  that  the  American  govern 
ment  was  the  best  form  of  government  for  an  intelligent 
people;  that  it  ought  to  be  kept  sound  and  preserved 
forever;  that  general  education  should  be  fostered 
and  carried  all  over  the  country;  that  the  constitu 
tion  should  be  saved,  the  Union  perpetuated  and  the 
laws  revered,  respected  and  enforced.  This  article 
was  turned  over  to  Mr.  Wood.  Judge  Pritchard  after 
wards  passed  that  way,  read  the  article,  and  said  '  The 
world  can't  beat  it.'  It  was  afterwards  published  in 
some  local  paper." 

This  was  written  when  the  boy  was  but  seventeen 
years  of  age. 

On  Monday  mornings  he  would  mount  a  stump  and 
deliver  in  substance  the  sermon  that  he  had  heard  the 
day  before.  His  taste  for  public  speaking  seemed  not 


LINCOLN'S  PASSION  FOR  KNOWLEDGE    27 

only  natural  but  was  most  pronounced  at  a  very  early 
age.  His  stepsister  Matilda  Johnston  says: 

"He  was  an  indefatigable  preacher.  When  Father 
and  Mother  would  go  to  church  Abe  would  take  down 
the  Bible,  read  a  verse,  give  out  a  hymn  and  we  would 
sing.  Abe  was  then  about  fifteen  years  of  age.  He 
preached  and  we  would  do  the  crying.  Sometimes  he 
would  join  in  the  chorus  of  tears.  One  day  my  brother, 
John  Johnston,  threw  a  land  terrapin  against  a  tree 
and  crushed  the  shell.  It  suffered  much.  Abe  then 
preached  against  cruelty  to  animals  contending  that 
an  ant's  life  was  as  sweet  to  it  as  ours  to  us." 

After  reaching  New  Salem,  when  twenty-two  years 
of  age,  one  of  the  first  things  he  did  was  to  join  the 
"New  Salem  Literary  Society. "  The  president,  Mr. 
R.  B.  Rutledge  spoke  of  Lincoln's  debates  as  follows: 

"He  pursued  the  questions  with  reason  and  argu 
ment  so  pithy  and  forcible  that  all  were  amazed." 

While  here  he  frequently  walked  to  Booneville 
court-house  to  observe  and  study  the  trial  of  cases. 

It  was  at  New  Salem  within  a  week  from  his  arrival 
that  he  met  the  village  schoolmaster,  Mentor  Graham, 
who  exercised  a  most  wholesome  and  intellectual  in 
fluence  on  the  young  man,  not  only  giving  him  books 
to  study,  but  aiding  him  in  their  study,  and  strongly 
advising  him  to  study  grammar.  Lincoln  walked  six 
miles  to  borrow  a  copy  of  Kirkham's  grammar  and 
with  Graham's  help  he  succeeded  in  mastering  it  in 
six  weeks.  His  comment  was  that  if  that  was  science 
he  thought  he  could  "subdue"  another. 

Herndon,  at  page  112,  quotes  the  schoolmaster 
Graham  as  saying: 

"He  (Lincoln)  studied  to  see  the  subject-matter 
clearly,  and  to  express  it  truly  and  strongly.  I  have 


28  THE  VOICE  OF  LINCOLN 

known  him  to  study  for  hours  the  best  way  of  three 
to  express  an  idea." 

The  fact  of  the  matter  is  he  was  one  of  the  busiest 
boys  in  all  the  neighborhood,  with  his  quills,  pokeberry 
juice,  scraps  of  paper,  charcoal  and  shingles,  scrap- 
books,  compositions,  debate,  talking  from  stumps  to 
the  trees  as  an  audience,  reading  and  repeating  over 
and  over  again  until  he  had  memorized  the  contents, 
of  books,  sermons,  and  speeches,  and  could  reproduce 
them  verbatim. 

Mental  power  does  not  come  from  mere  knowledge, 
but  rather  in  the  ability  to  practically  use  that  knowl 
edge.  As  child  and  youth  he  was  constantly  engaged 
not  only  in  acquiring  knowledge,  but  in  arranging  the 
same  and  putting  it  in  appropriate  phrase  and  formula 
for  future  use. 

Our  public  schools  and  colleges  seem  to  neglect  this 
important  and  useful  branch  of  practical  education 
and  mental  discipline.  I  fear  the  essentials  of  the  old 
literary  society  have  come  and  gone  until  public  opinion 
shall  call  them  back. 

It  was  one  of  the  biggest  factors  in  the  intellectual 
product  of  this  man.  He  was  organizing  and  attend 
ing  literary  societies,  participating  in  what  he  called 
"  practising  polemics "  in  and  about  Gentry ville,  in 
and  about  New  Salem,  and  even  after  he  got  to  Spring 
field  as  a  member  of  the  State  Legislature,  he,  with 
others,  organized  a  Lyceum,  in  the  autumn  of  1836, 
and  delivered  before  that  organization  in  January, 
1837,  a  remarkable  speech  on  "The  Perpetuation  of 
our  Political  Institutions."  This  speech  will  be  dis 
cussed  in  a  later  chapter. 

Lincoln  was  not  a  man  of  ordinary  desires,  ordinary 
tastes,  ordinary  likes  and  dislikes.  He  was,  for  the 


LINCOLN'S  PASSION  FOR  KNOWLEDGE    29 

most  part,  extraordinary  in  these  respects.  He  had 
passions  for  things,  and  no  passion  of  his  life  was 
stronger  than  his  passion  for  knowledge — save  one. 
What  was  that  one  ?  His  passion  for  justice. 

These  two  passions  were  ever  present  and  prevail 
ing  throughout  his  personal  and  public  life. 


CHAPTER  IV 
HIS  PASSION  FOR  JUSTICE 

"And  behold  there  was  a  man  named  Joseph,  a  counsellor;  and  he 
was  a  good  man  and  a  just." — St.  Luke  23  :  50. 

JUSTICE,  as  here  used  is  the  broad  generic  word  and 
its  associated  attributes,  such  as  gentleness,  helpful 
ness,  gratitude,  truthfulness,  honesty,  and  the  like — 
to  every  man  his  due. 

It  embraces  those  qualities  of  character,  which  the 
world  admires  when  it  pays  tribute  to  a  just  man. 

As  we  have  already  seen,  Lincoln  while  unschooled, 
as  a  boy,  was  everything  but  uneducated.  Where  in 
all  Indiana  could  he  have  found  a  schoolmaster  as 
great  as  himself  ?  Where  could  he  have  found  a  school 
that  could  have  given  the  time  to  study,  to  repetition 
in  repeating  over  and  over  again  his  reading  and  writ 
ing,  where  could  he  have  found  a  school  with  such 
text-books  as  the  Bible,  Bunyan's  "  Pilgrim's  Prog 
ress,"  "^Esop's  Fables,"  DeFoe's  " Robinson  Crusoe," 
and  the  like  ? 

Just  as  he  was  without  the  opportunity  of  regular 
attendance  upon  the  day-school,  so  he  was  also  with 
out  the  opportunity  of  attendance  upon  Sunday-school 
and  upon  church  and  Bible  class.  And  yet  there  was 
no  book  to  which  he  devoted  so  much  time,  study, 
analysis  and  application  of  its  great  truths  as  he  did 
to  the  Bible. 

As  Herndon  has  well  said:  "This  book  was  nearly 
always  at  his  elbow." 

Its  parables  and  proverbs  furnished  a  plan  and  spec- 

30 


HIS   PASSION  FOR  JUSTICE  31 

ifications  for  many  a  Lincoln  address.  Indeed,  in  the 
vast  majority  of  Lincoln's  public  speeches,  in  early  as 
well  as  later  life,  we  find  cropping  out,  yes,  we  find 
as  the  corner-stone  of  his  simple,  strong  arguments, 
the  Holy  Bible  or  the  Declaration  of  Independence,  or 
both. 

It  is  an  old  saying  that  "  Coming  events  cast  their 
shadows  before." 

The  early  experiences  and  expressions  of  boyhood 
ofttimes  forecast  the  coming  man. 

Let  us  note  a  few  of  the  symptomatic  incidents  of 
Lincoln's  boyhood,  as  showing  the  presence  of  this 
pronounced  passion  for  justice. 

Nicolay  and  Hay*  relate  this  interesting  incident  of 
the  boy's  life  in  Kentucky.  He  was  then  only  a  child 
not  exceeding  seven  years  of  age.  When  asked  for  any 
recollection  he  had  of  the  War  of  1812-1815,  Mr. 
Lincoln  once  said: 

"  Nothing  but  this.  I  had  been  fishing  one  day  and 
caught  a  little  fish  which  I  was  taking  home.  I  met  a 
soldier  in  the  road,  and  having  been  always  told  at 
home  that  we  must  be  good  to  the  soldiers,  I  gave  him 
my  fish." 

These  same  authors  observe: 

"This  is  only  a  faint  glimpse  but  what  it  shows  is 
rather  pleasant — the  generous  child  and  the  patriotic 
household." 

I  have  already  noted  his  talks  to  the  boys  and  girls 
against  cruelty  to  animals,  especially  a  common  prac 
tice  in  that  neighborhood  of  putting  coals  of  fire  on 
the  backs  of  turtles. 

Later  he  prepared  a  composition  on  this  subject 
that  received  neighborhood  prominence. 
*  Vol.  I,  p.  27. 


32  THE  VOICE   OF  LINCOLN 

Herndon  relates  several  interesting  incidents  touch 
ing  his  passion  for  justice. 

One  day  his  stepsister,  Matilda  Johnston,  a  mere 
girl,  followed  Abe  into  the  woods.  Running  hurriedly 
after  him,  she  crept  up,  catlike,  behind  him  and  jumped 
on  his  back;  planting  her  knee  in  the  middle  of  his 
back,  she  threw  him  over  backward,  the  axe  that  he 
was  carrying  so  falling  as  to  cut  the  girl's  ankle  as  she 
fell,  and  there  was  a  general  flow  of  blood.  Abe  tore 
off  a  part  of  his  shirt  for  a  bandage  and  stopped  the 
blood.  Thereafter  the  boy,  Abe,  said  to  Tilda: 

"What  are  you  going  to  tell  mother  about  getting 
hurt?" 

"Tell  her  I  did  it  with  the  ax,"  she  sobbed.  "That 
will  be  the  truth,  won't  it?" 

To  which  last  inquiry  Abe  manfully  responded: 

"Yes,  that  is  the  truth,  but  it  is  not  all  the  truth. 
Tell  the  whole  truth,  Tilda,  and  trust  to  your  good 
mother  for  the  rest." 

Another  incident  related  by  Herndon  shows  the 
inner  nature  of  this  boy.* 

It  was  during  the  moving  from  Indiana  to  Illinois, 
while  crossing  a  frozen  stream  which  had  to  be  forded 
by  the  yoke  of  oxen  hauling  the  effects  of  the  Lincoln 
family.  Herndon  says: 

"Among  other  things  which  the  party  brought  with 
them  was  a  pet  dog,  which  trotted  along  after  the 
wagon.  One  day  the  little  fellow  fell  behind  and 
failed  to  catch  up  till  after  they  had  crossed  the  stream. 
Missing  him  they  looked  back,  and  there,  on  the  oppo 
site  bank,  he  stood,  whining  and  jumping  about  in 
great  distress.  The  water  was  running  over  the 
broken  edges  of  the  ice,  and  the  poor  animal  was 

*  Herndon,  vol.  I,  p.  59. 


HIS  PASSION  FOR  JUSTICE  33 

afraid  to  cross.  It  would  not  pay  to  turn  the  oxen 
and  wagon  back  and  ford  the  stream  again  in  order  to 
recover  a  dog,  and  so  the  majority,  in  their  anxiety 
to  move  forward,  decided  to  go  on  without  him. 
'But  I  could  not  endure  the  idea  of  abandoning  even 
a  dog/  related  Lincoln.  '  Pulling  off  shoes  and  socks 
I  waded  across  the  stream  and  triumphantly  returned 
with  the  shivering  animal  under  my  arm.  His  frantic 
leaps  of  joy  and  other  evidences  of  a  dog's  gratitude 
amply  repaid  me  for  all  the  exposure  I  had  under 
gone.7'7 

Holland  records  several  incidents  of  a  like  nature: 

"One  evening,  while  returning  from  a  'raising'  in  his 
wide  neighborhood,  with  a  number  of  companions,  he 
discovered  a  straying  horse,  with  saddle  and  bridle 
upon  him.  The  horse  was  recognized  as  belonging  to 
a  man  who  was  accustomed  to  excess  in  drink,  and  it 
was  suspected  at  once  that  the  owner  was  not  far  off. 
A  short  search  only  was  necessary  to  confirm  the  sus 
picions  of  the  young  men.  The  poor  drunkard  was 
found  in  a  perfectly  helpless  condition,  upon  the  chilly 
ground.  Abraham's  companions  urged  the  cowardly 
policy  of  leaving  him  to  his  fate,  but  young  Lincoln 
would  not  hear  to  the  proposition.  At  his  request,  the 
miserable  sot  was  lifted  to  his  shoulders,  and  he  actu 
ally  carried  him  eighty  rods  to  the  nearest  house. 
Sending  word  to  his  father  that  he  should  not  be  back 
that  night,  with  the  reason  for  his  absence,  he  attended 
and  nursed  the  man  until  the  morning,  and  had  the 
pleasure  of  believing  that  he  had  saved  his  life." 

Again  he  says: 

"He  (Lincoln)  was  riding  by  a  deep  slough,  in  which, 
to  his  exceeding  pain,  he  saw  a  pig  struggling,  and  with 
such  faint  efforts  that  it  was  evident  that  he  could 


34  THE  VOICE  OF  LINCOLN 

not  extricate  himself  from  the  mud.  Mr.  Lincoln 
looked  at  the  pig  and  the  mud  which  enveloped  him, 
and  then  looked  at  some  new  clothes  with  which  he 
had  but  a  short  time  before  enveloped  himself.  De 
ciding  against  the  claims  of  the  pig,  he  rode  on,  but 
he  could  not  get  rid  of  the  vision  of  the  poor  brute, 
and,  at  last,  after  riding  two  miles,  he  turned  back, 
determined  to  rescue  the  animal  at  the  expense  of  his 
new  clothes.  Arrived  at  the  spot,  he  tied  his  horse, 
and  coolly  went  to  work  to  build  of  old  rails  a  passage 
to  the  bottom  of  the  hole.  Descending  on  these  rails, 
he  seized  the  pig  and  dragged  him  out,  but  not  with 
out  serious  damage  to  the  clothes  he  wore.  Washing 
his  hands  in  the  nearest  brook,  and  wiping  them  on 
the  grass,  he  mounted  his  gig  and  rode  along.  He 
then  fell  to  examining  the  motive  that  sent  him  back 
to  the  release  of  the  pig.  At  the  first  thought  it 
seemed  to  be  pure  benevolence,  but,  at  length,  he 
came  to  the  conclusion  that  it  was  selfishness,  for  he 
certainly  went  to  the  pig's  relief  in  order  (as  he  said  to 
the  friend  to  whom  he  related  the  incident)  to  Hake 
a  pain  out  of  his  own  mind/  This  is  certainly  a  new 
view  of  the  nature  of  sympathy,  and  one  which  it  will 
be  well  for  the  casuist  to  examine." 

Many  more  incidents  of  a  similar  nature,  showing  a 
variety  of  his  kind,  helpful,  and  generous  instincts 
toward  man  and  brute,  might  be  related  in  these  pages 
and  not  without  profit.  But  this  is  sufficient  to  show 
the  kind  of  boy  we  are  dealing  with,  who  was  to  become 
the  kind  of  man  we  find  later  at  Springfield,  as  lawyer, 
and  at  Washington,  as  President. 

No  boy  was  such  a  welcome  guest  in  every  neighbor 
hood  in  which  he  lived  as  the  boy  Abe.  He  was  always 
doing  chores  for  the  good  women  of  the  community, 


HIS   PASSION  FOR  JUSTICE  35 

helping  with  the  work  about  the  house,  taking  care  of 
their  children,  and  making  himself  generally  useful. 
But  on  such  occasions  he  was  never  without  a  book 
to  engage  his  spare  moments.  And  even  when  rocking 
the  primitive  cradles  of  those  days  to  help  the  busy 
mother,  Lincoln  could  be  found  with  a  foot  on  the 
rocker  and  a  book  in  his  hand. 

Notwithstanding  the  keen  and  noble  sense  of  obli 
gation  to  his  father,  because  he  was  his  father,  the 
last  year  or  two  in  Indiana  found  the  boy  exceed 
ingly  restive  and  dissatisfied.  He  talked  the  matter 
over  with  his  neighbors  about  leaving  home  and 
beginning  life  for  himself.  They  advised  him  to  stay 
until  he  had  reached  his  majority,  and  then  he  would 
feel  perfectly  free  to  emancipate  himself.  This  he 
did. 

Indeed,  after  the  family  moved  to  Macon,  Illinois,  he 
remained  with  them  a  year  in  helping  with  the  new 
cabin,  building  fences,  ploughing  the  new  land,  put 
ting  in  and  cultivating  and  harvesting  the  crops. 

He  remained  in  that  section  doing  odd  jobs  at  farm 
work  until  August,  1831,  when  he  went  to  New  Salem, 
which  opened  up  a  new  era  for  the  ambitious  youth, 
now  twenty- two  years  of  age. 

At  this  time  he  was  a  giant  in  size  and  strength,  six 
feet  four,  weight  one  hundred  and  eighty  pounds;  and 
numerous  biographers  relate  the  fact  to  be  that  he 
could  lift  six  hundred  pounds. 

His  remarkable  physical  strength  gave  him  great 
prominence  in  the  various  communities  in  which  he 
lived,  and  no  place  more  than  at  New  Salem. 

One  witness  declares  he  was  equal  to  three  men, 
having  on  a  certain  occasion  carried  a  load  of  six  hun 
dred  pounds.  At  another  time  he  walked  away  with 


36  THE  VOICE  OF  LINCOLN 

a  pair  of  logs  which  three  robust  men  were  sceptical 
of  their  ability  to  carry. 

"He  could  strike  with  a  maul  a  heavier  blow,  could 
sink  an  axe  deeper  into  wood  than  any  man  I  ever 
saw,"  says  another  witness. 

Having  a  giant's  strength,  he,  however,  refused  to 
use  it  as  the  average  giant  does.  He  was  no  "  bully." 

Lincoln's  early  life  in  New  Salem  is  full  of  interesting 
events.  But  I  shall  record  only  those  significant  ones 
that  show  the  inner  man. 

He  was  employed  by  Denton  Offut,  one  of  the 
village  merchants,  as  a  clerk  in  a  general  store.  This 
gave  him  additional  acquaintance  with  the  people  in 
a  large  neighborhood,  and  also  furnished  him  ample 
leisure,  day  and  night,  for  pursuing  his  studies.  He 
still  continued  to  read  and  study  everything  he  could 
get  his  hands  on  that  seemed  worth  while. 

While  here,  he  met  the  notorious  Jack  Armstrong, 
the  leader  of  the  Clary's  Grove  boys.  The  Armstrong 
contest  is  worthy  of  mention  in  some  detail. 

Offut  had  wagered  with  Bill  Clary,  one  of  the  gang, 
that  Lincoln  was  a  " better  man"  than  Jack  Arm 
strong. 

Herndon  describes  the  contest  as  follows: 

"The  new  clerk  strongly  opposed  this  sort  of  an  in 
troduction,  but  after  much  entreaty  from  Offut,  at 
last  consented  to  make  his  bow  to  the  social  lions  of 
the  town  in  this  unusual  way.  He  was  now  six  feet 
four  inches  high,  and  weighed,  as  his  friend  and  con 
fidant,  William  Greene  tells  us  with  impressive  pre 
cision,  'two  hundred  and  fourteen  pounds.'  The  con 
test  was  to  be  a  friendly  one  and  fairly  conducted.  All 
New  Salem  adjourned  to  the  scene  of  the  wrestle. 
Money,  whiskey,  knives,  and  all  manner  of  property 


HIS  PASSION  FOR  JUSTICE  37 

were  staked  on  the  result.  It  is  unnecessary  to  go  into 
details  of  the  encounter.  Every  one  knows  how  it 
ended;  how  at  last  the  tall  angular  rail-splitter,  en 
raged  at  the  suspicion  of  foul  tactics,  and  profiting 
by  his  height  and  the  length  of  his  arms,  fairly  lifted 
the  great  bully  by  the  throat  and  shook  him  like  a 
rag;  how  by  this  act  he  established  himself  solidly  in 
the  esteem  of  all  New  Salem,  and  secured  the  respect 
ful  admiration  and  friendship  of  the  very  man  whom 
he  had  so  thoroughly  vanquished.  From  this  time 
forward  Jack  Armstrong,  his  wife  Hannah,  and  all 
the  other  Armstrongs  became  his  warm  and  trusted 
friends."  * 

On  another  occasion,  while  acting  as  clerk  in  the 
Offut  store,  Lincoln  was  waiting  upon  several  ladies 
who  were  making  some  purchases  of  calico.  The  bully 
at  once  began  to  talk  in  an  offensive  and  profane  manner 
hi  the  presence  of  the  ladies.  Lincoln  leaned  over  the 
counter  and  begged  him  to  stop.  The  incident  as  re 
lated  by  Holland  is  as  follows: 

"The  bully  retorted  that  the  opportunity  had  come 
for  which  he  had  long  sought,  and  he  would  like  to 
see  the  man  who  could  hinder  him  from  saying  any 
thing  he  might  choose  to  say.  Lincoln,  still  cool,  told 
him  that  if  he  would  wait  until  the  ladies  retired,  he 
would  hear  what  he  had  to  say,  and  give  him  any  satis 
faction  he  desired.  As  soon  as  the  women  were  gone, 
the  man  became  furious.  Lincoln  heard  his  boasts 
and  his  abuse  for  a  time,  and  finding  that  he  was  not 
to  be  put  off  without  a  fight,  said — 'Well,  if  you  must 
be  whipped,  I  suppose  I  may  as  well  whip  you  as  any 
other  man/  This  was  just  what  the  bully  had  been 
seeking,  he  said,  so  out  of  doors  they  went,  and  Lin- 

*  Herndon,  vol.  I,  p.  74. 


38  THE  VOICE   OF  LINCOLN 

coin  made  short  work  with  him.  He  threw  him  upon 
the  ground,  held  him  there  as  if  he  had  been  a  child, 
and  gathering  some  'smart-weed'  which  grew  upon 
the  spot,  rubbed  it  into  his  face  and  eyes,  until  the 
fellow  bellowed  with  pain.  Lincoln  did  all  this  with 
out  a  particle  of  anger,  and  when  the  job  was  finished, 
went  immediately  for  water,  washed  his  victim's  face, 
and  did  everything  he  could  to  alleviate  his  distress. 
Thereafter  the  two  men  became  great  friends." 

Much  as  Lincoln  regretted  experiences  of  this  char 
acter,  he  was  fully  persuaded  that  the  eminent  justice 
of  the  situation  called  for  a  vigorous  discipline  of  the 
offender.  It  was  a  case  of  being  cruel  only  to  be  kind. 

This  passion  for  justice  made  him  likewise  an  honest 
boy  and  an  honest  man,  and  he  became  known  while 
a  clerk  in  the  store  at  New  Salem,  and  for  many  years 
thereafter  as  " Honest  Abe." 

Holland  has  preserved  two  incidents  illustrative  of 
this  trait  of  his  character: 

"On  one  occasion  he  sold  a  woman  a  little  bill  of 
goods  amounting  in  value,  by  the  reckoning,  to  two 
dollars  and  six  and  a  quarter  cents.  He  received  the 
money,  and  the  woman  went  away.  On  adding  the 
items  of  the  bill  again,  to  make  himself  sure  of  cor 
rectness,  he  found  that  he  had  taken  six  and  a  quarter 
cents  too  much.  It  was  night,  and  closing  and  lock 
ing  the  store,  he  started  out  on  foot,  a  distance  of  two 
or  three  miles,  for  the  house  of  his  defrauded  customer, 
and  delivering  over  to  her  the  sum  whose  possession 
had  so  much  troubled  him,  went  home  satisfied.  On 
another  occasion,  just  as  he  was  closing  the  store  for 
the  night,  a  woman  entered,  and  asked  for  half  a  pound 
of  tea.  The  tea  was  weighed  out  and  paid  for,  and 
the  store  was  left  for  the  night.  The  next  morning, 


HIS  PASSION  FOR  JUSTICE  39 

Abraham  entered  to  begin  the  duties  of  the  day,  when 
he  discovered  a  four-ounce  weight  on  the  scales.  He 
saw  at  once  that  he  had  made  a  mistake,  and,  shutting 
the  store,  he  took  a  long  walk  before  breakfast  to  de 
liver  the  remainder  of  the  tea." 

These  circumstances  are  small  in  and  of  themselves, 
but  they  are  simply  the  outcropping  of  a  great, 
big,  just,  honest,  conscientious  nature,  and  were  as 
much  a  part  of  Abraham  Lincoln  as  his  arms  and  his 
legs. 

A  similar  incident  occurred  after  he  began  the  prac 
tice  of  law  at  Springfield.  Uncle  Sam  had  never  asked 
any  accounting  of  Lincoln  during  his  term  as  post 
master  at  New  Salem,  which  began  in  1833. 

Some  years  afterward,  when  Lincoln  was  practising 
law  at  Springfield,  a  post-office  inspector  from  the 
Federal  Government  appeared  and  advised  Lincoln 
that  he  was  indebted  to  Uncle  Sam  in  the  amount  of 
seventeen  dollars  and  some  odd  cents.  Mr.  Lincoln 
thought  a  moment,  went  to  an  old  trunk,  unknotted 
an  old  rag  that  he  had  tied  up  years  before,  and  therein 
produced  the  exact  number  of  dollars  and  cents  which 
he  had  correctly  reckoned,  tied  up  in  this  old  rag,  and 
put  away  in  his  old  trunk,  so  that,  when  Uncle  Sam  was 
ready  for  the  accounting,  he,  Lincoln,  was  ready  to 
pay  to  the  very  last  penny. 

As  he  gave  the  money  to  the  inspector  he  said: 

"I  never  use  any  man's  money  but  my  own." 

Nicolay  and  Hay,  vol.  I,  page  120,  speak  of  this  pas 
sion  for  justice  that  was  generally  recognized  by  every 
body  that  knew  him  as  an  essential  part  of  the  boy 
Lincoln : 

"He  was  continually  called  on  to  serve  in  the  most 
incongruous  capacities.  Old  residents  say  he  was  the 


40  THE  VOICE   OF   LINCOLN 

best  judge  at  a  horse-race  the  county  afforded;  he  was 
occasionally  a  second  in  a  duel  of  fisticuffs,  though  he 
usually  contrived  to  reconcile  the  adversaries  on  the 
turf  before  any  damage  was  done;  he  was  the  arbiter 
on  all  controverted  points  of  literature,  science,  or 
woodcraft  among  the  disputatious  denizens  of  Clary's 
Grove,  and  his  decisions  were  never  appealed  from. 
His  native  tact  and  humor  were  invaluable  in  his 
work  as  a  peacemaker,  and  his  enormous  physical 
strength,  which  he  always  used  with  a  magnanimity 
rare  among  giants,  placed  his  offhand  decrees  beyond 
the  reach  of  contemptuous  question.  He  composed 
differences  among  friends  and  equals  with  good-natured 
raillery,  but  he  was  as  rough  as  need  be  when  his 
wrath  was  roused  by  meanness  and  cruelty." 

Holland  also  speaks  of  this  general  confidence  that 
the  public  universally  had  in  his  sense  of  fairness  and 
justice: 

"  Every  one  trusted  him.  It  was  while  he  was  per 
forming  the  duties  of  the  store  that  he  acquired  the 
sobriquet  ' Honest  Abe' — a  characterization  that  he 
never  dishonored,  and  an  abbreviation  that  he  never 
outgrew.  He  was  judge,  arbitrator,  referee,  umpire, 
authority,  in  all  disputes,  games,  and  matches  of  man- 
flesh,  and  horse-flesh;  a  pacificator  in  all  quarrels; 
everybody's  friend;  the  best  natured,  the  most  sensi 
ble,  the  best  informed,  the  most  modest  and  unassum 
ing,  the  kindest,  gentlest,  roughest,  strongest,  best 
young  fellow  in  all  New  Salem  and  the  region  round 
about." 

Many  more  of  the  symptomatic  facts  of  his  child 
hood  and  youth  might  be  here  recorded  to  forecast  the 
foundation  of  the  character  of  this  just  boy  and  man. 

Later,  throughout  his  keen,  competitive  life  as  a 


HIS  PASSION  FOR  JUSTICE  41 

lawyer  and  political  leader,  he  clung  fast  to  the  ideals 
of  justice  of  his  boyhood.  Every  controversy,  per 
sonal,  professional,  or  political,  had  first  to  be  tried 
out  in  God's  court. 

What  do  I  mean? 

The  first  court  of  justice  was  established  by  God 
Almighty.  Wherever  he  established  a  man  he  estab 
lished  a  court,  because  he  put  the  court  in  the  man. 
The  most  instantaneous,  automatic,  infallible,  human 
function  known  is  that  of  conscience.  From  the  primi 
tive  man  to  the  most  civilized,  conscience  has  so  cor 
rected  and  chastised  our  conduct  that  if  the  prompt 
ings  of  the  still  small  voice  are  followed,  human  nature 
does  not  go  far  wrong. 

In  this  court  there  are  no  technical  rules  of  sub 
stantive  law,  of  pleading,  of  evidence.  Everything  is 
reduced  to  the  simple  formula:  "Whatsoever  ye  would 
that  men  should  do  unto  you,  do  ye  even  so  to  them." 

And  in  the  essentials  of  life  it  is  amazing  how  our 
intelligence  accepts  the  judgment  of  conscience  as  wise 
and  just,  without  even  the  suggestion  of  an  appeal. 

As  there  are  no  technical  rules  in  this  court,  so  there 
are  no  delays.  The  truth  being  presented,  the  just 
ness  or  unjustness  of  any  contemplated  action  is  at 
once  determined. 

Every  controversy  of  Lincoln,  as  layman,  lawyer,  or 
leader,  had  first  to  receive  the  sanction  of  this  court. 
If  it  failed  to  secure  the  judgment  of  the  court  of  con 
science,  no  matter  what  financial  sacrifices  were  in 
volved,  no  matter  what  friendships  were  at  stake,  no 
matter  what  political  issues  might  be  affected,  Lincoln 
refused  to  have  anything  further  to  do  with  such  contro 
versy.  Conscience  having  rejected  it,  Lincoln  rejected 
it,  and  so  far  as  he  was  concerned  it  was  at  an  end. 


CHAPTER  V 
LINCOLN  ENTERS  POLITICS 

THE  day  the  Lincolns  moved  from  Indiana  into 
Macon  County,  Illinois,  was  an  eventful  one  for  young 
Abraham.  He  was  then  twenty-one  years  of  age. 

For  some  years  he  had  longed  for  the  day  of  his 
majority,  when  he  might  be  free  to  follow  his  own 
bent,  to  begin  his  own  life  in  his  own  way,  free  from 
paternal  interference. 

A  year  and  more  he  spent  in  and  about  that  neigh 
borhood  in  farm  work,  still,  however,  employing  all 
leisure  time  in  pursuing  his  studies.  He  also,  during 
this  time,  devoted  some  months  to  boating  upon  the 
Sangamon  and  the  Ohio  Rivers. 

Finally  he  landed  at  New  Salem,  in  Sangamon 
County,  as  he  himself  says,  as  "a  piece  of  driftwood. " 

A  new  day,  however,  had  now  dawned  for  Abraham 
Lincoln,  and  within  ten  days  from  the  time  he  arrived 
at  this  little  town  of  some  twenty  homes  and  one  hun 
dred  inhabitants  he  received  his  first  public  job.  An 
interesting  account  of  this  incident  is  given  in  Tarbell's 
Biography :  * 

"The  village  schoolmaster,  Mentor  Graham  by 
name,  was  clerk  at  this  particular  election,  but  his 
assistant  was  ill.  Looking  about  for  some  one  to  help 
him,  Mr.  Graham  saw  a  tall  stranger  loitering  around 
the  polling  place  and  called  to  him:  'Can  you  write ?' 
'Yes/  said  the  stranger,  'I  can  make  a  few  rabbit 


*Vol.  I,  page  61. 
42 


LINCOLN  ENTERS  POLITICS  43 

tracks/  Mr.  Graham  was  evidently  satisfied  with  the 
answer,  as  he  promptly  initiated  him." 

This  was  his  first  public  position. 

At  the  close  of  the  day  he  was  no  longer  a  stranger 
in  New  Salem.  His  pleasing  manner,  entertaining 
stories,  and  efficient  service  became  the  talk  of  the 
neighborhood  and  won  for  him  the  lasting  friendship 
of  the  village  schoolmaster,  who  henceforth  played  no 
unimportant  part  in  the  intellectual  development  of 
young  Lincoln. 

While  clerking  in  Offut's  store  Lincoln  conceived  the 
idea  of  becoming  a  candidate  for  the  general  assembly 
of  Illinois,  and  accordingly  in  March,  1832,  he  issued 
to  the  people  of  Sangamon  County  his  first  political 
circular. 

Inasmuch  as  this  is  really  the  beginning  of  the  poli 
tician  and  the  statesman,  that  circular  becomes  a  mat 
ter  of  prime  and  unusual  interest  to  one  following  the 
evolution  of  Abraham  Lincoln. 

As  an  index  to  the  mind,  character,  and  ambition 
of  this  twenty-three-year-old  unschooled  youth,  this 
circular  furnished  instructive  and  undoubted  evi 
dence. 

It  contained  about  two  thousand  words,  setting 
forth  his  views  on  the  important  issues  of  the  day. 

I  am  entirely  aware  that  Mr.  Herndon  calls  it  a 
mere  "  literary  fulmination,"  and  otherwise  speaks 
slightingly  of  it. 

On  the  other  hand,  Nicolay  and  Hay,  in  their  great 
work,  say: 

"This  is  almost  precisely  the  style  of  his  later  years. 
The  errors  of  grammar  and  construction  which  spring 
invariably  from  an  effort  to  avoid  redundancy  of  ex 
pression  remained  with  him  through  life.  He  seemed 


44  THE  VOICE  OF  LINCOLN 

to  grudge  the  space  required  for  necessary  parts  of 
speech.  But  his  language  was  at  twenty-three,  as 
it  was  thirty  years  later,  the  simple  and  manly  attire 
of  his  thought,  with  little  attempt  at  ornament  and 
none  at  disguise." 

The  circular  is  as  follows: 

"To  THE  PEOPLE  OF  SANGAMON  COUNTY. 

"  Fellow-Citizens, — Having  become  a  candidate  for 
the  honorable  office  of  one  of  your  Representatives  in 
the  next  General  Assembly  of  this  State,  in  accordance 
with  an  established  custom  and  the  principles  of  true 
republicanism,  it  becomes  my  duty  to  make  known 
to  you,  the  people,  whom  I  propose  to  represent,  my 
sentiments  with  regard  to  local  affairs. 

"Time  and  experience  have  verified  to  a  demonstra 
tion  the  public  utility  of  internal  improvements.  That 
the  poorest  and  most  thinly-populated  counties  would 
be  greatly  benefited  by  the  opening  of  good  j-oads,  and 
in  the  clearing  of  navigable  streams  within  their  limits, 
is  what  no  person  will  deny.  Yet  it  is  folly  to  under 
take  works  of  this  or  any  other  kind,  without  first 
knowing  that  we  are  able  to  finish  them, — as  half- 
finished  work  generally  proves  to  be  labor  lost.  There 
cannot  justly  be  any  objection  to  having  railroads 
and  canals,  any  more  than  to  other  good  things,  pro 
vided  they  cost  nothing.  The  only  objection  is  to  pay 
ing  for  them;  and  the  objection  arises  from  the  want 
of  ability  to  pay. 

"With  respect  to  the  County  of  Sangamon,  some 
more  easy  means  of  communication  than  it  now  pos 
sesses,  for  the  purpose  of  facilitating  the  task  of  ex 
porting  the  surplus  products  of  its  fertile  soil,  and 
importing  necessary  articles  from  abroad,  are  indis- 


LINCOLN  ENTERS  POLITICS  45 

pensably  necessary.  A  meeting  has  been  held  of  the 
citizens  of  Jacksonville  and  the  adjacent  country,  for 
the  purpose  of  deliberating  and  inquiring  into  the  ex 
pediency  of  constructing  a  railroad  from  some  eligible 
point  on  the  Illinois  River,  through  the  town  of  Jack 
sonville,  in  Morgan  County,  to  the  town  of  Spring 
field,  in  Sangamon  County.  This  is,  indeed,  a  very- 
desirable  object.  No  other  improvement  that  reason 
will  justify  us  in  hoping  for  can  equal  in  utility  the 
railroad.  It  is  a  never-failing  source  of  communica 
tion  between  places  of  business  remotely  situated  from 
each  other.  Upon  the  railroad  the  regular  progress  of 
commercial  intercourse  is  not  interrupted  by  either 
high  or  low  water,  or  freezing  weather,  which  are  the 
principal  difficulties  that  render  our  future  hopes  of 
water  communication  precarious  and  uncertain. 

"Yet  however  desirable  an  object  the  construction 
of  a  railroad  through  our  country  may  be;  however 
high  our  imaginations  may  be  heated  at  thoughts  of 
it, — there  is  always  a  heart-appalling  shock  accom 
panying  the  account  of  its  cost,  which  forces  us  to 
shrink  from  our  pleasing  anticipations.  The  principal 
cost  of  this  contemplated  railroad  is  estimated  at 
$290,000;  the  bare  statement  of  which,  in  my  opinion, 
is  sufficient  to  justify  the  belief  that  the  improvement 
of  the  Sangamon  River  is  an  object  much  better  suited 
to  our  infant  resources. 

"  Respecting  this  view,  I  think  I  may  say,  without 
the  fear  of  being  contradicted,  that  its  navigation 
may  be  rendered  completely  practicable  as  high  as  the 
mouth  of  the  South  Fork,  or  probably  higher,  to  vessels 
of  from  twenty-five  to  thirty  tons  burden,  for  at  least 
one-half  of  all  common  years,  and  to  vessels  of  much 
greater  burden  a  part  of  the  time.  From  my  peculiar 


46  THE  VOICE  OF  LINCOLN 

circumstances,  it  is  probable  that  for  the  last  twelve 
months  I  have  given  as  particular  attention  to  the 
stage  of  the  water  in  this  river  as  any  other  person  in 
the  country.  In  the  month  of  March,  1831,  in  com 
pany  with  others,  I  commenced  the  building  of  a  flat- 
boat  on  the  Sangamon,  and  finished  and  took  her  out 
in  the  course  of  the  spring.  Since  that  time  I  have 
been  concerned  in  the  mill  at  New  Salem.  These  cir 
cumstances  are  sufficient  evidence  that  I  have  not  been 
very  inattentive  to  the  stages  of  the  water.  The  time 
at  which  we  crossed  the  mill-dam  being  in  the  last 
days  of  April,  the  water  was  lower  than  it  had  been 
since  the  breaking  of  winter  in  February,  or  than  it 
was  for  several  weeks  after.  The  principal  difficulties 
we  encountered  in  descending  the  river  were  from  the 
drifted  timber,  which  obstructions  all  know  are  not 
difficult  to  be  removed.  Knowing  almost  precisely 
the  height  of  water  at  this  time,  I  believe  I  am  safe 
in  saying  that  it  has  as  often  been  higher  as  lower 
since. 

"From  this  view  of  the  subject  it  appears  that  my 
calculations  with  regard  to  the  navigation  of  the  San 
gamon  cannot  but  be  founded  in  reason;  but,  what 
ever  may  be  its  natural  advantage,  certain  it  is  that 
it  never  can  be  practically  useful  to  any  great  extent 
without  being  greatly  improved  by  art.  The  drifted 
timber,  as  I  have  before  mentioned,  is  the  most  formi 
dable  barrier  to  this  object.  Of  all  parts  of  this  river, 
none  will  require  so  much  labor  in  proportion  to  make 
it  navigable  as  the  last  thirty  or  thirty-five  miles;  and 
going  with  the  meanderings  of  the  channel,  when  we 
are  this  distance  above  its  mouth  we  are  only  between 
twelve  and  eighteen  miles  above  Beardstown  in  some 
thing  near  a  straight  direction;  and  this  route  is  upon 


LINCOLN  ENTERS   POLITICS  47 

such  low  ground  as  to  retain  water  in  many  places 
during  the  season,  and  in  all  parts  such  as  to  draw  two- 
thirds  or  three-fourths  of  the  river  water  at  all  high 
stages. 

"This  route  is  on  prairie  land  the  whole  distance, 
so  that  it  appears  to  me,  by  removing  the  turf  a  suf 
ficient  width,  arid  damming  up  the  old  channel,  the 
whole  river  in  a  short  time  would  wash  its  way  through, 
thereby  curtailing  the  distance  and  increasing  the 
velocity  of  the  current  very  considerably,  while  there 
would  be  no  timber  on  the  banks  to  obstruct  its  navi 
gation  in  future;  and  being  nearly  straight,  the  timber 
which  might  float  in  at  the  head  would  be  apt  to  go 
clear  through.  There  are  also  many  places  above  this 
where  the  river,  in  its  zigzag  course  forms  such  com 
plete  peninsulas  as  to  be  easier  to  cut  at  the  necks  than 
to  remove  the  obstructions  from  the  bends,  which, 
if  done,  would  also  lessen  the  distance. 

"What  the  cost  of  this  work  would  be,  I  am  unable 
to  say.  It  is  probable,  however,  that  it  would  not  be 
greater  than  is  common  to  streams  of  the  same  length. 
Finally,  I  believe  the  improvement  of  the  Sangamon 
River  to  be  vastly  important  and  highly  desirable  to 
the  people  of  the  county;  and,  if  elected,  any  measure 
in  the  legislature  having  this  for  its  object,  which  may 
appear  judicious,  will  meet  my  approbation  and  re 
ceive  my  support. 

"It  appears  that  the  practice  of  drawing  money  at 
exorbitant  rates  of  interest  has  already  been  opened 
as  a  field  for  discussion;  so  I  suppose  I  may  enter 
upon  it  without  claiming  the  honor,  or  risking  the 
danger,  which  may  await  its  first  explorer.  It  seems 
as  though  we  are  never  to  have  an  end  to  this  baneful 
and  corroding  system,  acting  almost  as  prejudicial 


48  THE  VOICE  OF  LINCOLN 

to  the  general  interests  of  the  community  as  a  direct 
tax  of  several  thousand  dollars  annually  laid  on  each 
county,  for  the  benefit  of  a  few  individuals  only,  unless 
there  be  a  law  made  fixing  the  limits  of  usury.  A  law 
for  this  purpose,  I  am  of  opinion,  may  be  made,  with 
out  materially  injuring  any  class  of  people.  In  cases 
of  extreme  necessity,  there  could  always  be  means 
found  to  cheat  the  law;  while  in  all  other  cases  it  would 
have  its  intended  effect.  I  would  favor  the  passage 
of  a  law  on  this  subject  which  might  not  be  very  easily 
evaded.  Let  it  be  such  that  the  labor  and  difficulty 
of  evading  it  could  only  be  justified  in  cases  of  greatest 
necessity. 

"Upon  the  subject  of  education,  not  presuming  to 
dictate  any  plan  or  system  respecting  it,  I  can  only 
say  that  I  view  it  as  the  most  important  subject  which 
we  as  a  people  can  be  engaged  in.  That  every  man 
may  receive  at  least  a  moderate  education,  and  there 
by  be  enabled  to  read  the  histories  of  his  own  and 
other  countries,  by  which  he  may  duly  appreciate  the 
value  of  our  free  institutions,  appears  to  be  an  object 
of  vital  importance,  even  on  this  account  alone,  to 
say  nothing  of  the  advantages  and  satisfaction  to  be 
derived  from  all  being  able  to  read  the  Scriptures,  and 
other  works  both  of  a  religious  and  moral  nature,  for 
themselves. 

"For  my  part,  I  desire  to  see  the  time  when  educa 
tion — and  by  its  means,  morality,  sobriety,  enterprise, 
and  industry — shall  become  much  more  general  than 
at  present,  and  should  be  gratified  to  have  it  in  my 
power  to  contribute  something  to  the  advancement 
of  any  measure  which  might  have  a  tendency  to  ac 
celerate  that  happy  period. 

"With  regard  to  existing  laws,  some  alterations  are 


LINCOLN  ENTERS  POLITICS  49 

thought  to  be  necessary.  Many  respectable  men  have 
suggested  that  our  estray  laws — the  law  respecting 
the  issuing  of  executions,  the  road  law,  and  some  others 
—are  deficient  in  their  present  form,  and  require  al 
terations.  But,  considering  the  great  probability  that 
the  framers  of  those  laws  were  wiser  than  myself,  I 
should  prefer  not  meddling  with  them,  unless  they 
were  first  attacked  by  others;  in  which  case  I  should 
feel  it  both  a  privilege  and  a  duty  to  take  that  stand, 
which,  in  my  view,  might  tend  most  to  the  advance 
ment  of  justice. 

"But  fellow-citizens,  I  shall  conclude.  Considering 
the  great  degree  of  modesty  which  should  always  at 
tend  youth,  it  is  probable  I  have  already  been  more 
presuming  than  becomes  me.  However,  upon  the 
subjects  of  which  I  have  treated,  I  have  spoken  as  I 
have  thought.  I  may  be  wrong  in  regard  to  any  or 
all  of  them;  but,  holding  it  a  sound  maxim  that  it  is 
better  only  sometimes  to  be  right  than  at  all  times 
to  be  wrong,  so  soon  as  I  discover  my  opinions  to  be 
erroneous,  I  shall  be  ready  to  renounce  them. 

"Every  man  is  said  to  have  his  peculiar  ambition. 
Whether  it  be  true  or  not,  I  can  say,  for  one,  that  I 
have  no  other  so  great  as  that  of  being  truly  esteemed 
of  my  fellow-men,  by  rendering  myself  worthy  of  their 
esteem.  How  far  I  shall  succeed  in  gratifying  this 
ambition  is  yet  to  be  developed.  I  am  young,  and 
unknown  to  many  of  you.  I  was  born,  and  have  ever 
remained,  in  the  most  humble  walks  of  life.  I  have 
no  wealthy  or  popular  relations  or  friends  to  recom 
mend  me.  My  case  is  thrown  exclusively  upon  the 
independent  voters  of  the  county;  and,  if  elected,  they 
will  have  conferred  a  favor  upon  me  for  which  I  shall 
be  unremitting  in  my  labors  to  compensate.  But,  if 


50  THE  VOICE  OF   LINCOLN 

the  good  people  in  their  wisdom  shall  see  fit  to  keep 
me  in  the  background,  I  have  been  too  familiar  with 
disappointments  to  be  very  much  chagrined." 

How  few  could  excel  or  equal  this  at  twenty-three 
years  of  age. 

He  had  now  been  in  Illinois  but  two  years,  Sanga- 
mon  County  and  New  Salem  less  than  one  year,  but 
this  circular  shows  a  familiarity  with  the  local  issues 
of  the  day,  a  simplicity  of  statement,  a  clearness  of 
demonstration,  and  a  modest  announcement  of  his 
ambition  that  might  well  add  credit  to  any  man  older 
by  a  score. 

I  want  to  call  attention  to  one  thing  in  particular, 
and  that  is  the  orderly  arrangement  of  this  circular, 
as  showing  his  learning,  his  logic,  and  his  language. 

1.  His  declaration  of  principles. 

2.  His  demonstration  of  their  soundness. 

3.  His  dedication  to  them  if  elected. 

I  desire  to  emphasize  this  feature  of  this  boyhood 
address,  because  like  the  young  apple-tree  bearing  its 
first  crop,  it  may  not  be  perfect,  indeed  it  seldom  is, 
but  it  surely  forecasts  the  kind  of  apple  that  tree  will 
bear  in  the  coming  years. 

This  threefold  manner,  to  wit,  declaration,  demon 
stration,  and  dedication,  are  the  constitutional  charac 
teristics  of  the  Lincoln  mind  and  character  that  we  see 
all  through  the  coming  years.  This  address  merits 
further  analysis.  It  falls  into  the  following  divisions: 

1.  His  "duty  to  make  known  to  you,  the  people, 
whom  I  propose  to  represent,  my  sentiments  with  re 
gard  to  local  affairs." 

2.  His  declaration  in  favor  of  internal  improvements, 
particularly  the  navigability  of  the  Sangamon  River. 


LINCOLN  ENTERS  POLITICS  51 

3.  His  declaration  against  the  loan  shark  of  the  day. 

4.  His  declaration  in  favor  of  popular  education. 

5.  His  declaration  in  favor  of  reserving  the  right  to 
change  or  amend  the  existing  laws  as  "  might  tend 
most  to  the  advancement  of  justice." 

6.  He  notes  his  own  humility:  "I  may  be  wrong  in 
regard  to  any  or  all  of  them;  but,  holding  it  a  sound 
maxim  that  it  is  better  only  sometimes  to  be  right 
than  at  all  times  to  be  wrong,  so  soon  as  I  discover  my 
opinions  to  be  erroneous  I  shall  be  ready  to  renounce 
them." 

7.  His  peculiar  ambition,  and  to  this  I  urge  particu 
lar  attention:  "I  have  no  other  (ambition)  so  great  as 
that  of  being  truly  esteemed  of  my  fellow-men,  by 
rendering  myself  worthy  of  their  esteem.     How  far  I 
shall  succeed  in  gratifying  this  ambition  is  yet  to  be 
developed.     I  am  young  and  unknown  to  many  of 
you.     I  was  born,  and  have  ever  remained,  in  the  most 
humble  walks  of  life.     I  have  no  wealthy  or  popular 
relations  or  friends  to  recommend  me." 

8.  "My  case  is  thrown  exclusively  upon  the  inde 
pendent    voters    of    the    county."     The    independent 
voters  seem  to  have  been  of  importance  even  in  1832. 

9.  His  submission  of  the  question:  "If  elected  they 
(the  people)  will  have  conferred  a  favor  upon  me  for 
which  I  shall  be  unremitting  in  my  labors  to  compen 
sate.     But,  if  the  good  people  in  their  wisdom  shall 
see  fit  to  keep  me  in  the  background,  I  have  been  too 
familiar  with  disappointments  to  be  very  much  cha 
grined." 

In  this  circular  are  the  seeds  of  the  student,  oppor 
tunity  and  obligations  of  the  orator,  a  subject-matter 
for  the  statesman,  and  the  methods  and  manner  of  the 
popular  leader  and  legislator. 


52  THE  VOICE  OF   LINCOLN 

Truly  the  boy  Lincoln  was  father  to  the  man  Lincoln. 

Within  sixty  days  from  the  publication  of  this  cir 
cular  the  Black  Hawk  War  came  on,  and  a  company 
was  organized  among  the  pioneers  in  and  about  New 
Salem.  With  many  others  Lincoln  volunteered.  Soon 
a  captain  was  to  be  chosen.  There  was  one  avowed 
candidate,  a  man  by  the  name  of  Kirkpatrick.  Kirk- 
patrick  had  been  an  employer  of  Lincoln  at  a  sawmill. 
One  of  Lincoln's  duties  was  the  handling  of  the  big 
logs,  which  called  for  the  exercise  of  even  his  giant 
strength.  A  cant-hook  was  used,  among  other  things, 
as  is  common  about  a  sawmill,  and  in  some  way  or 
other  it  got  lost,  strayed,  or  stolen.  Kirkpatrick  sug 
gested  buying  a  new  one,  to  which  Lincoln  responded: 
"If  you  will  give  me  the  two  dollars  which  the  cant 
hook  will  cost  you,  I  will  handle  the  logs  myself  with 
out  the  aid  of  a  cant  hook."  Kirkpatrick  agreed. 
But  Lincoln  never  got  the  two  dollars,  nor  the  cant- 
hook.  Having  such  a  high  regard  for  a  man's  word 
of  honor,  Lincoln  felt  much  hurt  over  Kirkpatrick's 
treatment,  though  the  amount  was  small. 

At  this  time  it  took  very  little  persuasion  from  his 
friends  in  the  new  company  to  make  him  a  candidate 
against  Kirkpatrick.  The  custom  was  for  the  candi 
dates  to  stand  up  at  the  head  of  the  line,  and  those 
who  favored  either  candidate  fell  in  at  his  side.  At 
once  fully  three-fourths  of  the  men  in  the  new  com 
pany  lined  up  on  the  side  of  Lincoln  and  the  others, 
seeing  his  overwhelming  victory,  joined  Lincoln  and 
left  Kirkpatrick  standing  alone.  It  was  a  victory  that 
Lincoln  very  keenly  appreciated,  especially  in  view  of 
Kirkpatrick's  haughty  and  contemptuous  treatment  of 
him  and  his  failure  to  pay  him  the  two  dollars,  which 
he  was  abundantly  able  to  do. 


LINCOLN  ENTERS  POLITICS  53 

This  was  the  people's  first  expression  of  confidence 
and  honor  toward  Captain  Lincoln.  He  served  as 
captain  about  ninety  days,  all  told,  and  then  returned 
to  New  Salem,  and,  contrary  to  the  usual  political  cus 
toms  in  such  cases,  Captain  Lincoln  never  exploited 
his  military  experience  or  honor.  Indeed,  he  rarely 
mentioned  it. 

One  incident  is  peculiarly  noteworthy  because  of 
its  political  significance.  In  after-years,  in  the  year 
1846,  he  was  elected  a  member  of  Congress  from  the 
Sangamon  district.  While  making  a  speech  touching 
the  claims  made  by  the  friends  of  General  Cass  as  to 
his  military  record,  Lincoln  made  this  reference  to  the 
Black  Hawk  War: 

"The  friends  of  General  Cass,  when  that  gentleman 
was  a  candidate  for  the  presidency,  endeavored  to  en 
dow  him  with  a  military  reputation.  Mr.  Lincoln,  at 
that  time  a  representative  in  Congress,  delivered  a 
speech  before  the  House,  which,  in  its  allusions  to 
General  Cass,  was  exquisitely  sarcastic  and  irresis 
tibly  humorous.  '  By  the  way,  Mr.  Speaker,'  said  Mr. 
Lincoln,  'do  you  know  I  am  a  military  hero?  Yes, 
sir,  in  the  days  of  the  Black  Hawk  war,  I  fought,  bled 
and  came  away.  Speaking  of  General  Cass's  career 
reminds  me  of  my  own.  I  was  not  at  Stillman's  Defeat, 
but  I  was  about  as  near  it  as  Cass  to  Hull's  surrender; 
and  like  him  I  saw  the  place  very  soon  afterward.  It 
is  quite  certain  I  did  not  break  my  sword,  for  I  had 
none  to  break;  but  I  bent  my  musket  pretty  badly  on 
one  occasion.  ...  If  General  Cass  went  in  advance  of 
me  in  picking  whortleberries,  I  guess  I  surpassed  him 
in  charges  upon  the  wild  onions.  If  he  saw  any  live, 
fighting  Indians,  it  was  more  than  I  did,  but  I  had  a 
good  many  bloody  struggles  with  the  mosquitoes;  and 


54  THE  VOICE   OF   LINCOLN 

although  I  never  fainted  from  loss  of  blood,  I  can  truly 
say  I  was  often  very  hungry.'  Mr.  Lincoln  then  went 
on  to  say  that  if  he  should  ever  turn  democrat,  and  be 
taken  up  as  a  candidate  for  the  presidency  by  the 
democratic  party,  he  hoped  they  would  not  make  fun 
of  him  by  attempting  to  make  of  him  a  military  hero." 

Captain  Lincoln  returned  to  New  Salem  about  ten 
days  before  the  election.  Naturally  the  balance  of  the 
time  was  spent  in  furthering  his  candidacy  for  the 
State  Legislature.  He  was  defeated  on  the  general 
vote,  but  found  much  satisfaction  and  compliment  in 
the  vote  of  his  own  precinct  where  he  received  205 
votes  out  of  a  possible  208.  Nothing  could  more  con 
clusively  show  his  popularity  at  home. 

Immediately  he  looked  about  for  something  to  do. 

A  man  named  Berry  bought  a  half -interest  in  the 
general  store  kept  by  the  Herndon  Brothers.  Very 
soon  the  other  brother  disposed  of  his  half  to  Lincoln, 
who  was  without  means  to  pay  for  the  purchase. 
Herndon  relates  that  he  once  asked  his  cousin  why  he 
sold  to  Lincoln  on  such  terms,  that  is,  without  cash, 
merely  taking  Lincoln's  note.  To  that  the  merchant 
said: 

"I  believed  he  was  thoroughly  honest  and  that  im 
pression  was  so  strong  in  me  that  I  accepted  his  note 
in  payment  of  the  whole.  Lincoln  had  no  money  but 
I  would  have  advanced  him  still  more  had  he  asked 
for  it." 

Very  soon  thereafter  another  merchant  of  the  town 
by  the  name  of  Radford  got  into  a  controversy  with 
the  Clary's  Grove  boys,  and  therefore  concluded  to 
"retire  from  business."  He  sold  out  to  William 
Greene,  who  later  sold  in  turn  to  Berry  and  Lincoln, 
accepting  their  notes.  Berry  and  Lincoln  conducted 


LINCOLN  ENTERS   POLITICS  55 

the  business  for  a  brief  time,  Lincoln  giving  his  spare 
time  to  his  studies  and  Berry  giving  his  spare  time  to 
consuming  the  liquor  that  was  a  part  of  the  stock. 

In  a  comparatively  short  time,  not  to  exceed  eight 
months,  Berry  and  Lincoln  were  ready  "to  retire." 
They  sold  out  to  two  brothers  by  the  name  of  Trent, 
who  assumed  all  the  store  debts  of  their  predecessors 
and  gave  their  notes  for  the  balance.  Before  the  notes 
fell  due  the  Trents  failed  and  fled  to  parts  unknown, 
and  Lincoln  was  left  with  about  $1,100  to  pay.  For 
a  man  absolutely  without  means,  without  an  income, 
and  with  no  more  prospect  than  Lincoln  had  at  that 
time  it  is  no  wonder  that  he  called  this  his  "  National 
Debt."  He  discharged  it  in  small  sums  year  by  year, 
paying  off  the  last  cent  as  late  as  1848,  from  his  salary 
as  congressman. 

His  friends,  however,  were  making  Lincoln  famous 
in  that  community  as  the  most  intelligent  and  best- 
read  young  man  in  it. 

One  John  C.  Calhoun,  who  afterward  became  fa 
mous,  or  infamous,  as  the  president  of  the  Lecompton 
Constitution  of  Kansas,  was  then  surveyor  of  Sanga- 
mon  County.  Calhoun  had  been  a  school-teacher  and  a 
lawyer,  was  an  intelligent  and  cultivated  gentleman 
and  a  stanch  Democrat,  well  grounded  in  the  doc 
trines  of  his  party  and  capable  of  forcibly  presenting 
them  in  debate.  Herndon  himself  says: 

"I  have  heard  Lincoln  say  that  Calhoun  gave  him 
more  trouble  in  his  debates  than  Douglas  ever  did,  be 
cause  he  was  more  captivating  in  his  manner  and  a 
more  learned  man  than  Douglas." 

Calhoun  offered  the  position  as  deputy  to  Lincoln. 
Lincoln  was  entirely  frank  with  him  and  told  him  that 
his  knowledge  in  mathematics  was  so  defective  and 


56  THE  VOICE  OF   LINCOLN 

his  utter  ignorance  of  surveying  was  such  that  it 
would  be  impossible  for  him  to  accept  the  job. 

Calhoun  took  such  a  liking  to  the  young  man's 
frankness  and  apparent  intelligence  that  he  gave  him 
a  treatise  on  surveying  by  Flint  and  Gibson,  and  ad 
vised  him  to  study  it  and  when  he  thought  he  could 
master  the  subject  to  report  to  him,  Calhoun,  for 
duty. 

Lincoln  returned  to  New  Salem  and  began  the  new 
venture  of  qualifying  himself  for  a  deputy  county  sur 
veyor. 

As  he  had  mastered  his  Kirkham  the  year  before 
with  Graham's  help,  he  now  determined  to  master 
Flint  and  Gibson  likewise  with  Graham's  help. 

Herndon  relates  that  "  Graham's  daughter  is  au 
thority  for  the  statement  that  her  father  and  Lincoln 
frequently  sat  up  until  midnight,  engrossed  in  calcula 
tions,  and  only  ceased  when  her  mother  drove  them 
out  for  a  fresh  supply  of  wood  for  the  fire." 

Herndon  further  relates  in  this  connection: 

"He  was  so  studious  and  absorbed  in  his  applica 
tion  at  one  time  that  his  friends,  according  to  a  state 
ment  made  by  one  of  them,  noticed  that  he  was  so 
emaciated  we  feared  he  might  bring  on  mental  de 
rangement." 

In  six  weeks,  however,  he  had  mastered  his  book 
and  again  reported  to  Calhoun,  but  before  accepting 
the  job,  knowing  Calhoun's  intense  partisan  princi 
ples,  he  said: 

"If  I  can  be  perfectly  free  in  my  political  action,  I 
will  take  the  office,  but  if  my  sentiments  or  even  ex 
pression  of  them  is  to  be  abridged  in  any  way,  I  would 
not  have  it  nor  any  other  office." 

He  got  the  job. 


LINCOLN  ENTERS  POLITICS  57 

This  was  the  most  money  that  Lincoln  ever  got 
for  any  service  up  to  this  time,  three  dollars  per  day. 
He  became  a  painstaking,  careful,  and  thorough  sur 
veyor. 

One  of  his  biographers  relates  that  upon  one  occa 
sion  Lincoln  was  called  to  decide  or  locate  a  disputed 
corner  for  some  persons  in  the  northern  part  of  the 
county.  Among  others  interested  was  his  friend  and 
admirer  Henry  McHenry.  According  to  the  latter's 
recollection,  the  following  happened: 

"  After  a  good  deal  of  disputing  we  agreed  to  send 
for  Lincoln  and  to  abide  by  his  decision.  He  came 
with  compass,  flag-staff,  and  chain.  He  stopped  with 
me  three  or  four  days  and  surveyed  the  whole  section. 
When  in  the  neighborhood  of  the  disputed  corner  by 
actual  survey  he  called  for  his  staff,  and  driving  it  in 
the  ground  at  a  certain  spot  said  'Gentlemen,  here  is 
the  corner.'  We  dug  down  into  the  ground  at  the 
point  indicated  and,  lo !  there  we  found  about  six  or 
eight  inches  of  the  original  stake  sharpened  at  the  end 
and  beneath  which  was  the  usual  piece  of  charcoal 
placed  there  by  Rector  the  surveyor  who  laid  the 
ground  off  for  the  government  many  years  before." 

That  part  of  Illinois  was  developing  very  rapidly, 
and  Lincoln  frequently  laid  out  the  original  town 
plats.  Among  these  was  the  town  of  Petersburg,  the 
original  survey  of  which  bears  Mr.  Lincoln's  name. 
It  is  claimed  with  some  show  of  probability  that  his 
first  chain  was  not  a  chain,  but  rather  only  a  grape 
vine. 

Several  of  his  biographers  relate  the  fact  that  once 
his  surveyor's  instruments  were  sold  to  pay  one  of  the 
old  Berry  debts.  A  friend  came  to  his  rescue,  bid  in 
the  instruments  and  returned  them  to  Mr.  Lincoln. 


58  THE  VOICE  OF   LINCOLN 

I  want  to  challenge  attention  to  one  thing  especially 
in  connection  with  his  duties  as  a  surveyor:  We  hear 
much  nowadays  about  surveys,  inventories,  taking 
stock  of  everything  you  have  and  that  the  other  fellow 
has.  Lincoln  applied  much  of  the  same  method  and 
philosophy  to  the  survey  of  every  subject  that  was 
submitted  to  him  for  study,  consideration,  and  judg 
ment,  not  only  in  cases  in  court,  but  causes  in  govern 
ment. 

In  his  experience  as  a  surveyor  he  came  in  contact 
very  frequently  with  the  word  " dedicate":  the  dedi 
cation  of  streets,  of  public  grounds,  and  the  laying  out 
of  his  town  plats — that  is,  the  giving  over,  yielding, 
consecrating  something  to  a  public  use,  or  a  public 
service — and  we  shall  see  and  learn  much  of  this  word 
dedicate  in  future  chapters. 


CHAPTER  VI 

LINCOLN  ENTERS  POLITICS 

(CONTINUED) 

SHORTLY  after  Lincoln  and  Berry  had  sold  out  their 
store  to  the  Trent  Brothers,  and  the  whole  thing  had 
" petered  out,"  as  Lincoln  said,  Lincoln  was  commis 
sioned  postmaster  at  New  Salem  by  President  Jack 
son,  though  he  was  known  at  the  time  to  be  a  stanch 
Whig. 

The  duties  were  not  very  burdensome,  the  mail  arriv 
ing  only  once  a  week.  The  post-office  was  really  under 
Lincoln's  hat,  where  he  carried  the  mail  in  his  trips 
around  the  neighborhood.  The  office  was  nominally 
in  the  Hill  store  of  New  Salem.  The  small  salary, 
however,  was  the  most  insignificant  part  of  it. 

The  really  important  thing  was  the  efficiency  of 
the  postmaster,  who  gave  universal  satisfaction  in 
his  management  of  the  office  and  had  the  opportunity 
of  reading  all  the  newspapers  that  came  to  the  office, 
which  furnished  him  his  information  as  to  current 
events.  Nobody  will  ever  be  able  fairly  to  estimate 
the  large  fund  of  information  of  a  public  nature  that 
Abraham  Lincoln  gathered  from  the  great  newspapers 
of  that  day  by  his  inveterate  reading  and  study. 

In  1834  he  again  became  a  candidate  for  the  legis 
lature  upon  substantially  the  same  declaration  of 
principles  on  which  he  made  his  canvass  in  1832.  He 
was  elected  by  an  unusually  large  vote.  His  friend 

59 


60  THE  VOICE  OF  LINCOLN 

John  T.  Stuart,  afterward  his  partner,  was  also  a  can 
didate  on  that  same  ticket.  Lincoln,  however,  led 
Stuart  by  more  than  200,  a  very  flattering  vote  indeed. 

Some  say  he  walked  to  the  capital  to  be  inducted 
into  office,  some  say  he  rode  on  horseback,  some  by 
stage.  It  is  immaterial  which  way  he  went.  Every 
body  knows  that  he  was  so  poor  that  he  had  to  borrow 
money  to  buy  suitable  clothing,  and  to  take  care  of 
his  preliminary  expenses  while  at  the  State  capital, 
which  was  then  Vandalia.  The  preponderance  of  the 
evidence,  however,  suggests  that  he  went  to  the  capi 
tal  by  stage-coach,  as  the  public  generally  did  in  that 
day. 

During  his  first  term  he  conducted  himself  with 
becoming  modesty  and  took  little  part  in  the  public 
discussions,  but  he  had  a  keen  eye  and  discriminating 
judgment  to  learn  the  " ropes"  of  procedure  and  par 
liamentary  law,  of  committee  work,  and  the  general 
legislative  machinery  of  the  State. 

As  one  man,  Mentor  Graham,  was  big  in  his  in 
fluence  on  Lincoln  at  New  Salem,  so  here  at  Vandalia, 
and  alike  at  the  new  capital  of  Springfield,  there  were 
many  big  young  men,  full  of  the  fibre  and  fire  of  the 
frontier,  that  made  a  wonderful  impression  upon  Lin 
coln,  knocked  off  many  of  his  sharp  edges  and  rough 
corners,  and  qualified  him  for  useful  and  distinguished 
service  as  a  member  of  the  legislature,  and  later  as 
a  member  of  the  bar. 

The  legislative  sessions  then,  as  they  should  be  now, 
were  short,  and  his  brief  service  during  his  first  term 
seems  to  have  whetted  his  appetite  for  further  polit 
ical  honors.  He  became  a  candidate  again  in  1836, 
as  fully  appears  from  the  following  circular  in  the  San- 
gamon  Journal: 


LINCOLN  ENTERS  POLITICS  61 

"NEW  SALEM,  June  13,  1836. 
"  To  the  Editor  of  the  Journal: 

"In  your  paper  of  last  Saturday  I  see  a  communica 
tion  over  the  signature  of  'Many  Voters7  in  which 
the  candidates  who  are  announced  in  the  Journal  are 
called  upon  to  'show  their  hands/  Agreed.  Here's 
mine: 

"I  go  for  all  sharing  the  privileges  of  the  government 
who  assist  in  bearing  its  burdens.  Consequently,  I 
go  for  admitting  all  whites  to  the  right  of  suffrage  who 
pay  taxes  or  bear  arms  (by  no  means  excluding  fe 
males). 

"If  elected  I  shall  consider  the  whole  people  of  San- 
gamon  my  constituents,  as  well  those  that  oppose  as 
those  that  support  me. 

"While  acting  as  their  Representative,  I  shall  be 
governed  by  their  will  on  all  subjects  upon  which  I 
have  the  means  of  knowing  what  their  will  is;  and 
upon  all  others  I  shall  do  what  my  own  judgment 
teaches  me  will  best  advance  their  interests.  Whether 
elected  or  not,  I  go  for  distributing  the  proceeds  of 
the  sales  of  public  lands  to  the  several  States  to  en 
able  our  State,  in  common  with  others,  to  dig  canals 
and  construct  railroads  without  borrowing  money 
and  paying  the  interest  on  it. 

"If  alive  on  the  first  Monday  in  November,  I  shall 
vote  for  Hugh  L.  White,  for  President. 

"Very  respectfully, 

"A.  LINCOLN." 

For  a  simple,  short-cut,  straightforward  declara 
tion  of  principles,  it  is  hard  to  beat.  Much  of  it  is 
apropos  to-day  and  might  well  be  imitated  by  modern 
would-be  statesmen. 


62  THE  VOICE   OF  LINCOLN 

During  this  time  Lincoln  was  gradually  shaping  his 
political  ambition  to  some  definite  political  pro 
gramme.  Naturally  the  psychology  of  the  political 
situation  of  Illinois  at  that  time  appealed  to  him  most 
strongly,  and  the  one  great  ambition  of  his  life  of  that 
day  was  to  become  the  "DeWitt  Clinton  of  Illinois  "- 
DeWitt  Clinton,  it  will  be  remembered,  was  the  great 
governor  of  New  York,  who  became  famous  for  the 
canals  and  other  internal  improvements  of  that  State. 

As  Lincoln  had  done  in  Indiana,  as  he  had  done  at 
New  Salem,  so  he  did  at  Vandalia  and  Springfield: 
organized  literary  societies. 

The  Springfield  Society  was  called  by  the  somewhat 
dignified  name  of  "  Lyceum." 

In  the  campaign  of  1836  for  the  State  Legislature  a 
joint  debate  was  held  just  before  the  election.  Sub 
stantially  all  of  the  candidates  participated.  The  argu 
ment  became  very  heated  and  very  bitter.  A  duel 
seemed  about  to  result,  when  Lincoln,  with  his  spirit 
of  fairness  and  justice  to  all  the  disputants,  quieted 
the  tumult.  The  meeting  adjourned  with  compara 
tively  good  feeling  among  all  the  candidates. 

It  was  during  this  campaign  that  Joshua  F.  Speed, 
a  great  friend  of  Lincoln's,  describes  a  meeting  held  at 
Springfield  about  this  same  time: 

"The  crowd  was  large  and  great  numbers  of  his 
friends  and  admirers  had  come  in  from  the  country. 
I  remember  that  his  speech  was  a  very  able  one,  using 
with  great  power  and  originality  all  the  arguments 
used  to  sustain  the  principles  of  the  Whig  party  as 
against  its  great  rival,  the  Democratic  party  of  that 
day.  The  speech  produced  a  profound  impression— 
the  crowd  was  with  him.  George  Forquer,  an  old  citi 
zen,  a  man  of  recognized  prominence  and  ability  as  a 


LINCOLN  ENTERS  POLITICS  63 

lawyer,  was  present.  Forquer  had  been  a  Whig — one 
of  the  champions  of  the  party — but  had  then  recently 
joined  the  Democratic  party,  and  almost  simultane 
ous  with  the  change  had  been  appointed  Register  of 
the  Land  Office,  which  office  he  then  held.  Just  about 
that  time  Mr.  Forquer  had  completed  a  neat  frame 
house — the  best  house  then  in  Springfield — and  over 
it  had  erected  a  lightning  rod,  the  only  one  in  the  place 
and  the  first  one  Mr.  Lincoln  had  ever  seen.  He  after 
wards  told  me  that  seeing  Forquer 's  lightning  rod  had 
led  him  to  the  study  of  the  properties  of  electricity 
and  the  utility  of  the  rod  as  a  conductor.  At  the  con 
clusion  of  Lincoln's  speech  the  crowd  was  about  dis 
persing,  when  Forquer  rose  and  asked  to  be  heard. 
He  commenced  by  saying  that  the  young  man  would 
have  to  be  taken  down,  and  was  sorry  the  task  de 
volved  on  him.  He  then  proceeded  to  answer  Lin 
coln's  speech  in  a  style  which,  while  it  was  able  and 
fair,  in  his  whole  manner  asserted  and  claimed  superi 
ority.  Lincoln  stood  a  few  steps  away  with  arms 
folded,  carefully  watching  the  speaker  and  taking  in 
everything  he  said.  He  was  laboring  under  a  good 
deal  of  suppressed  excitement.  Forquer's  sting  had 
roused  the  lion  within  him.  At  length  Forquer  con 
cluded,  and  he  mounted  the  stand  to  reply. 

"I  have  heard  him  often  since/'  continued  Speed, 
"in  the  courts  and  before  the  people,  but  never  saw 
him  appear  and  acquit  himself  so  well  as  upon  that 
occasion.  His  reply  to  Forquer  was  characterized  by 
great  dignity  and  force.  I  shall  never  forget  the  con 
clusion  of  that  speech:  'Mr.  Forquer  commenced  his 
speech  by  announcing,'  said  Lincoln,  'that  the  young 
man  would  have  to  be  taken  down.  It  is  for  you, 
fellow  citizens,  not  for  me  to  say  whether  I  am  up  or 


64  THE  VOICE  OF  LINCOLN 

down.  The  gentleman  has  seen  fit  to  allude  to  my 
being  a  young  man;  but  he  forgets  that  I  am  older  in 
years  than  I  am  in  the  tricks  and  trades  of  politicians. 
I  desire  to  live,  and  I  desire  place  and  distinction;  but 
I  would  rather  die  now  than,  like  the  gentleman,  live 
to  see  the  day  that  I  would  change  my  politics  for  an 
office  worth  three  thousand  dollars  a  year,  and  then 
feel  compelled  to  erect  a  lightning  rod  to  protect  a 
guilty  conscience  from  an  offended  God/ 

"The  effect  of  this  reply  can  readily  be  imagined." 

Another  incident  that  throws  some  light  upon  the 

spirit  of  the  time  as  well  as  the  versatility  of  Lincoln 

occurred  in  his  campaign  for  the  State  Legislature  in 

1838. 

Herndon*  gives  the  account  of  it  as  follows: 
"  Among  the  Democratic  orators  who  stumped  the 
county  at  this  time  was  one  Taylor — commonly  known 
at  Colonel  Dick  Taylor.  He  was  a  showy,  bombastic 
man,  with  a  weakness  for  fine  clothes  and  other  per 
sonal  adornments.  Frequently  he  was  pitted  against 
Lincoln,  and  indulged  in  many  bitter  flings  at  the 
lordly  ways  and  aristocratic  pretensions  of  the  Whigs. 
He  had  a  way  of  appealing  to  'his  horny-handed  neigh 
bors/  and  resorted  to  many  other  artful  tricks  of  a 
demagogue.  When  he  was  one  day  expatiating  in  his 
accustomed  style,  Lincoln,  in  a  spirit  of  mischief  and, 
as  he  expressed  it,  'to  take  the  wind  out  of  his  sails/ 
slipped  up  to  the  speaker's  side,  and  catching  his  vest 
by  the  lower  edge  gave  it  a  sharp  pull.  The  latter  in 
stantly  opened  and  revealed  to  his  astonished  hearers 
a  ruffled  shirt-front  glittering  with  watch-chain,  seals, 
and  other  golden  jewels.  The  effect  was  startling. 
The  speaker  stood  confused  and  dumbfounded,  while 

*  Vol.  I,  page  185. 


LINCOLN  ENTERS  POLITICS  65 

the  audience  roared  with  laughter.  When  it  came 
Lincoln's  turn  to  answer  he  covered  the  gallant  colonel 
over  in  this  style :  '  While  Colonel  Taylor  was  making 
these  charges  against  the  Whigs  over  the  country,  rid 
ing  in  fine  carriages,  wearing  ruffled  shirts,  kid  gloves, 
massive  gold  watch-chains  with  large  gold  seals,  and 
flourishing  a  heavy  gold-headed  cane,  I  was  a  poor 
boy,  hired  on  a  flat-boat  at  eight  dollars  a  month,  and 
had  only  one  pair  of  breeches  to  my  back,  and  they 
were  buckskin.  •  Now,  if  you  know  the  nature  of  buck 
skin  when  wet  and  dried  by  the  sun,  it  will  shrink; 
and  my  breeches  kept  shrinking  until  they  left  several 
inches  of  my  legs  bare  between  the  tops  of  my  socks 
and  the  lower  part  of  my  breeches;  and  whilst  I  was 
growing  taller  they  were  becoming  shorter,  and  so 
much  tighter  that  they  left  a  blue  streak  around  my 
legs  that  can  be  seen  to  this  day.  If  you  call  this 
aristocracy  I  plead  guilty  to  the  charge." 

Another  event  in  the  following  campaign  of  1840  is 
worthy  of  mention  as  showing  some  new  sides  to 
Lincoln. 

One  of  his  biographers  gives  this  account  of  what 
became  known  in  Springfield  as  the  " skinning"  of 
Thomas : 

"  Jesse  B.  Thomas,  one  of  the  men  who  had  repre 
sented  the  Democratic  side  in  the  great  debate  in  the 
Presbyterian  Church  (earlier  in  the  campaign)  in  a 
speech  at  the  court  house,  indulged  in  some  fun  at 
the  expense  of  the  'Long  Nine/  reflecting  somewhat 
more  on  Lincoln  than  the  rest.  The  latter  was  not 
present,  but  being  apprised  by  his  friends  of  what  had 
been  said,  hastened  to  the  meeting,  and  soon  after 
Thomas  closed,  stepped  upon  the  platform  and  re 
sponded.  The  substance  of  his  speech  on  this  occasion 


66  THE  VOICE  OF   LINCOLN 

was  not  so  memorable  as  the  manner  of  its  delivery. 
He  felt  the  sting  of  Thomas's  allusions,  and  for  the 
first  time,  on  the  stump  or  in  public,  resorted  to  mimicry 
for  effect.  In  this,  as  will  be  seen  later  on,  he  was  with 
out  a  rival.  He  imitated  Thomas  in  gesture  and  voice, 
at  times  caricaturing  his  walk  and  the  very  motion  of 
his  body.  Thomas,  like  everybody  else,  had  some 
peculiarities  of  expression  and  gesture,  and  these  Lin 
coln  succeeded  in  rendering  more  prominent  than  ever. 
The  crowd  yelled  and  cheered  as  he  continued.  En 
couraged  by  these  demonstrations,  the  ludicrous  fea 
tures  of  the  speaker's  performance  gave  way  to  in 
tense  and  scathing  ridicule.  Thomas,  who  was  obliged 
to  sit  near  by  and  endure  the  pain  of  this  unique  ordeal, 
was  ordinarily  sensitive;  but  the  exhibition  goaded 
him  to  desperation.  He  was  so  thoroughly  wrought 
up  with  suppressed  emotion  that  he  actually  gave 
way  to  tears." 

It  is  related  that  shortly  thereafter,  Lincoln,  feeling 
that  possibly  he  had  gone  too  far,  saw  Thomas  and 
made  ample  apology  for  his  strictures.  Acknowledg 
ment  of  wrong  with  appropriate  apology  is  the  act  of 
a  just  man. 

As  we  have  before  seen,  Lincoln  met  big  books  and 
studied  them;  he  also  met  big  men  and  studied  them, 
clear  through  from  cover  to  cover,  books  and  men. 
He  knew  their  strength  and  their  weakness,  emulated 
the  one  and  avoided  the  other. 

Among  these  men  who  were  members  either  of  the 
legislature  or  members  of  the  bar  at  Springfield,  or 
the  famous  eighth  judicial  district  were  the  following: 
Douglas,  Baker,  Davis,  Hardin,  McClernand,  Brown 
ing,  Treat,  Edwards,  Trumbull,  McDougal,  and  many 
others.  Indeed,  in  the  first  legislature  of  which  Lin- 


LINCOLN  ENTERS  POLITICS  67 

coin  was  a  member  there  were  numbered  not  only  a 
future  President  of  the  United  States  and  a  future 
candidate  for  the  presidency,  but  six  future  members 
of  the  United  States  Senate,  eight  future  members  of 
the  House  of  Representatives,  future  Cabinet  members, 
future  judges  of  the  State,  and  many  other  men  who 
later  distinguished  themselves  as  citizens  or  as  officers. 

Surely,  there  were  giants  in  those  days. 

Lincoln,  during  his  first  and  second  terms  in  the 
legislature  had  so  capably  conducted  the  affairs  of 
the  State  on  matters  of  legislation,  and  so  successfully 
led  his  party,  that  upon  his  election  for  the  third  term 
in  1838,  he  was  the  party's  unanimous  choice  for 
speaker;  the  Democrats  being  in  the  majority,  how 
ever,  he  simply  became  the  minority  leader.  He  easily 
maintained  his  prestige  in  the  legislature  and  upon 
re-election  for  the  last  time  in  1840  he  was  again  his 
party's  choice  for  speaker. 

He  was  urged  again  to  become  a  candidate  but  de 
clined,  evidently  looking  to  higher  honors,  for  in  1842, 
he  became  a  candidate  for  Congress  against  John  J. 
Hardin  and  Edward  Baker,  both  capable  men.  Hardin 
was  nominated  and  elected  and  served  one  term,  which 
seems  to  have  been  the  rule  of  service  in  that  district 
at  that  time. 

Following  him  in  1844,  Baker  was  nominated,  though 
Lincoln  was  again  a  candidate.  Each  time  Lincoln 
pressed  his  candidacy  to  the  point  where  he  felt  it  was 
unavailing  to  insist  further,  and  then  supported  the 
candidacy  of  both  Hardin  and  Baker  respectively. 

In  1846  Lincoln  was  nominated  and  elected.  The 
canvass  was  a  very  interesting  and  a  very  bitter  one 
personally.  His  opposing  candidate  was  the  famous 
Reverend  Peter  Cartwright,  a  circuit-rider  in  the  dis- 


68  THE  VOICE  OF  LINCOLN 

trict  for  years,  who  probably  knew  more  men  person 
ally  in  the  district  than  even  did  Lincoln. 

Lincoln's  religious  views,  or  the  want  of  them  at 
that  time,  got  into  the  controversy,  but  the  people's 
faith  in  Lincoln  could  not  be  discredited,  and  he 
emerged  from  the  canvass  stronger  than  ever. 

The  biography  Lincoln  furnished  for  the  congres 
sional  directory,  after  his  election,  is  of  especial  in 
terest  as  another  proof  of  his  brevity  and  directness, 
as  well  as  his  humility: 

"Born  February  12,  1809,  Hardin  County,  Ken 
tucky. 

"  Education,  defective. 

"  Profession,  lawyer. 

"  Military  service,  captain  of  volunteers  in  the  Black 
Hawk  War. 

" Offices  held:  postmaster  at  a  very  small  office; 
four  times  a  member  of  the  Illinois  Legislature,  and 
elected  to  the  Lower  House  of  the  next  Congress." 

He  took  his  seat  in  the  National  Congress  the  first 
Monday  of  December,  1847.  His  legislative  experi 
ence  at  Springfield,  Illinois,  during  four  terms  of  the 
legislature,  as  well  as  his  legal  experience  at  the  bar, 
also  his  experience  upon  the  stump  in  the  discussion 
of  the  great  public  questions  of  the  day,  had  so  equipped 
him  for  his  service  in  the  Federal  Congress  that  it  was 
not  long  before  he  was  heard  from  in  a  most  surprising 
and  striking  way. 

For  many  years  the  old  rule  applied  that  first-term 
congressmen  in  either  house  must  be  silent  and  duly 
deferential  to  the  powers  that  be.  Lincoln  was  neither, 
but  preferred  to  smash  the  precedent  hi  both  respects. 

At  the  same  tune  that  Lincoln  became  a  member  of 
the  lower  house  Douglas  became  one  of  the  youngest 


LINCOLN  ENTERS  POLITICS  69 

members  of  the  upper  house.  Before  thirty  days  of 
the  congressional  session  had  elapsed,  to  wit,  the  22d 
day  of  December,  Lincoln  introduced  a  series  of  reso 
lutions  that  have  become  known  as  the  "Spot  Resolu 
tions."  These  resolutions  are  worthy  of  particular 
mention. 

"  WHEREAS,  The  President  of  the  United  States,  in 
his  message  of  May  11,  1846,  has  declared  that  'the 
Mexican  Government  not  only  refused  to  receive  him 
(the  envoy  of  the  United  States)  or  listen  to  his  propo 
sitions,  but,  after  a  long-continued  series  of  menaces, 
has  at  last  invaded  our  territory,  and  shed  the  blood 
of  our  fellow  citizens  on  our  own  soil': 

"And  again,  in  his  message  of  December  8,  1846, 
that  'We  had  ample  cause  of  war  against  Mexico  long 
before  the  breaking  out  of  hostilities;  but  even  then 
we  forebore  to  take  redress  into  our  own  hands  until 
Mexico  herself  became  the  aggressor,  by  invading  our 
soil  in  hostile  array,  and  shedding  the  blood  of  our 
citizens' : 

"And  yet  again,  in  his  message  of  December  7,  1847, 
that  'The  Mexican  Government  refused  even  to  hear 
the  terms  of  adjustment  which  he  (our  minister  of 
peace)  was  authorized  to  propose,  and  finally,  under 
wholly  unjustifiable  pretexts,  involved  the  two  coun 
tries  in  war,  by  invading  the  territory  of  the  State  of 
Texas,  striking  the  first  blow,  and  shedding  the  blood 
of  our  citizens  on  our  own  soil,'  and, 

"WHEREAS,  This  House  is  desirous  to  obtain  a  full 
knowledge  of  all  the  facts  which  go  to  establish  whether 
the  particular  spot  on  which  the  blood  of  our  citizens 
was  so  shed  was  or  was  not  at  that  time  'our  own  soil': 
therefore, 

"Resolved  by  the  House  of  Representatives,  That  the 


70  THE  VOICE  OF   LINCOLN 

President  of  the  United  States  be  respectfully  re 
quested  to  inform  this  house: 

"1st.  Whether  the  spot  on  which  the  blood  of  our 
citizens  was  shed,  as  in  his  messages  declared,  was  or 
was  not  within  the  territory  of  Spain,  at  least  after 
the  treaty  of  1819,  until  the  Mexican  revolution. 

"2d.  Whether  that  spot  is  or  is  not  within  the 
territory  which  was  wrested  from  Spain  by  the  revo 
lutionary  Government  of  Mexico. 

"3d.  Whether  that  spot  is  or  is  not  within  a  settle 
ment  of  people,  which  settlement  has  existed  ever 
since  long  before  the  Texas  revolution,  and  until  its 
inhabitants  fled  before  the  approach  of  the  United 
States  army. 

"4th.  Whether  that  settlement  is  or  is  not  isolated 
from  any  and  all  other  settlements  by  the  Gulf  and  the 
Rio  Grande  on  the  south  and  west,  and  by  wide  unin 
habited  regions  on  the  north  and  east. 

"5th.  Whether  the  people  of  that  settlement,  or  a 
majority  of  them,  or  any  of  them,  have  ever  submitted 
themselves  to  the  government  or  laws  of  Texas  or  of 
the  United  States,  by  consent  or  by  compulsion,  either 
by  accepting  office,  or  voting  at  elections,  or  paying 
tax,  or  serving  on  juries,  or  having  process  served 
upon  them,  or  in  any  other  way. 

"6th.  Whether  the  people  of  that  settlement  did 
or  did  not  flee  from  the  approach  of  the  United  States 
army,  leaving  unprotected  their  homes  and  their  grow 
ing  crops,  before  the  blood  was  shed,  as  in  the  messages 
stated;  and  whether  the  first  blood,  so  shed,  was  or 
was  not  shed  within  the  inclosure  of  one  of  the  people 
who  had  thus  fled  from  it. 

"7th.  Whether  our  citizens,  whose  blood  was  shed, 
as  in  his  messages  declared,  were  or  were  not,  at  that 


LINCOLN  ENTERS  POLITICS  71 

time,  armed  officers  and  soldiers,  sent  into  that  settle 
ment  by  the  military  order  of  the  President,  through 
the  Secretary  of  War. 

"8th.  Whether  the  military  force  of  the  United 
States  was  or  was  not  so  sent  into  that  settlement  after 
General  Taylor  had  more  than  once  intimated  to  the 
War  Department  that,  in  his  opinion,  no  such  move 
ment  was  necessary  to  the  defense  or  protection  of 
Texas." 

These  resolutions  clearly  show  Lincoln's  full  famil 
iarity  with  the  subject  which  he  was  dealing  with.  They 
show  him  going  to  the  very  crux  of  the  controversy. 

Lincoln  evidently  was  a  party  man  in  its  best  sense. 
In  his  eulogy  upon  Henry  Clay  in  1852  he  said: 

"A  free  people  in  times  of  peace  and  quiet  when 
pressed  by  no  common  danger,  naturally  divide  into 
parties.  At  such  times  the  man  who  is  not  of  either 
party  is  not,  cannot  be,  of  any  consequence.  Mr.  Clay, 
therefore,  was  of  a  party." 

The  northern  division  of  the  Whig  party  devoutly 
believed  that  the  Mexican  War  was  nothing  less  than 
an  effort  to  increase  slave  territory  and  slave  power. 
But  the  country  was  at  war  and  the  very  serious  and 
delicate  dilemma  arose  of  denouncing  the  cause  and 
occasion  of  the  war  and  at  the  same  time  supporting 
the  government  in  voting  the  necessary  funds  and  sup 
plies. 

There  were  many  charges  of  disloyalty  and  treason 
to  the  government  made  against  leading  Whigs,  Lin 
coln  among  the  number,  especially  after  his  speech  on 
the  12th  of  January,  1848. 

This  speech  is  a  marvel  for  the  thoroughness  of 
knowledge  and  entire  familiarity  with  all  the  facts  sur 
rounding  the  beginning  of  the  war.  It  showed  in  a 


72  THE  VOICE  OF  LINCOLN 

striking  manner  how  thoroughly  Lincoln  went  to  the 
bottom  of  things  before  he  presented  his  views  to  the 
public. 

His  clear,  concise  reasoning,  his  plain,  pointed  speech, 
his  demonstration  of  his  position  on  the  unjustifiable- 
ness  of  the  war  were  unanswerable.  For  logic  and  lan 
guage  this  address  deserves  to  rank  with  any  other 
great  argumentative  Lincoln  ever  made;  and  still  there 
were  many  who  did  not  recognize  in  this  speech  the 
coming  man. 

Notwithstanding  the  Whig  opposition  to  the  war, 
the  political  paradox  presents  itself  in  1848  of  the  same 
Whig  party  nominating,  supporting,  and  electing  the 
real  hero  of  the  Mexican  War,  General  Taylor,  and 
electing  him  on  account  of  his  military  record  and 
prestige, — for  he  had  no  political  record,  which  seems  to 
have  been  one  of  his  chief  qualifications.  Clay,  the 
candidate  of  many  campaigns,  had,  as  many  other  men 
have  had,  too  much  record. 

Lincoln  made  a  speech  in  which  he  rigorously  ridi 
culed  General  Cass,  the  opposing  candidate  to  General 
Taylor.  He  said,  after  quoting  from  the  record  to  show 
where  General  Cass  had  stood  on  slavery,  particularly 
the  Wilmot  Proviso: 

"  These  extracts  show  that  in  1846  General  Cass  was 
for  the  Proviso  at  once,  that  in  March,  1847,  he  was 
still  for  it,  but  not  just  then;  and  that  in  December  he 
was  against  it  altogether.  This  is  a  true  index  to  the 
whole  man.  When  the  question  was  raised  in  1846,  he 
was  in  a  blustering  hurry  to  take  ground  for  it,  ... 
but  soon  he  began  to  see  glimpses  of  the  great  demo 
cratic  ox-gad  waving  in  his  face,  and  to  hear  indis 
tinctly,  a  voice  saying,  '  back !  back,  sir !  back  a 
little!'  He  shakes  his  head,  and  bats  his  eyes,  and 


LINCOLN  ENTERS  POLITICS  73 

blunders  back  to  his  position  of  March,  1847;  but  still 
the  gad  waves,  and  the  voice  grows  more  distinct  and 
sharper  still — 'back,  sir!  back,  I  say!  further  back!' 
and  back  he  goes  to  the  position  of  December,  1847; 
at  which  the  gad  is  still,  and  the  voice  soothingly  says 
-'so!  stand  still  at  that!'" 

While  not  in  diplomatic  phrase,  it  certainly  had 
dynamic  force. 

Lincoln  was  not  a  candidate  for  re-election.  In 
discussing  the  matter  in  a  letter  to  Herndon  in  Janu 
ary,  1848,  he  says: 

"  January  8,  1848. 
"  DEAR  WILLIAM  :  .  .  . 

"As  to  speech-making,  by  way  of  getting  the  hang 
of  the  House  I  made  a  little  speech  two  or  three  days 
ago  on  a  post-office  question  of  no  general  interest.  I 
find  speaking  here  and  elsewhere  about  the  same  thing. 
I  am  about  as  badly  scared,  and  no  worse,  as  I  am  when 
I  speak  in  court.  I  expect  to  make  one  within  a  week 
or  two,  in  which  I  hope  to  succeed  well  enough  to  wish 
you  to  see  it. 

"It  is  very  pleasant  to  learn  from  you  that  there  are 
some  who  desire  that  I  should  be  reelected.  I  most 
heartily  thank  them  for  their  kind  partiality;  and  I 
can  say,  as  Mr,  Clay  said  of  the  annexation  of  Texas, 
that  'personally  I  would  not  object'  to  a  reelection, 
although  I  thought  at  the  time,  and  still  think,  it 
would  be  quite  as  well  for  me  to  return  to  the  law  at 
the  end  of  a  single  term.  I  made  the  declaration  that 
I  would  not  be  a  candidate  again,  more  from  a  wish  to 
deal  fairly  with  others,  to  keep  peace  among  our  friends, 
and  to  keep  the  district  from  going  to  the  enemy,  than 
for  any  cause  personal  to  myself;  so  that,  if  it  should 


74  THE  VOICE  OF  LINCOLN 

so  happen  that  nobody  else  wishes  to  be  elected,  I  could 
not  refuse  the  people  the  right  of  sending  me  again. 
But  to  enter  myself  as  a  competitor  of  others,  or  to 
authorize  any  one  so  to  enter  me,  is  what  my  word  and 
honor  forbid." 

Lincoln,  after  declining  to  be  a  candidate  for  re 
election,  entered  heartily  into  the  campaign  for  the 
election  of  General  Taylor.  In  that  behalf  he  made 
a  campaign  trip  through  New  England  which  is  of 
special  interest  here. 

As  to  this,  the  Boston  Advertiser  reports: 

"Mr.  Lincoln  has  a  very  tall  and  thin  figure,  with 
an  intellectual  face,  showing  a  searching  mind  and  a 
cool  judgment.  He  spoke  in  a  clear  and  cool  and  very 
eloquent  manner,  carrying  the  audience  with  him  in 
his  able  arguments  and  brilliant  illustrations,  only 
interrupted  by  warm  and  frequent  applause.  He  began 
by  expressing  a  real  feeling  of  modesty  in  addressing 
an  audience  'this  side  of  the  mountains,  a  part  of  the 
country  where,  in  the  opinion  of  the  people  of  his  sec 
tion,  everybody  was  supposed  to  be  instructed  and 
wise.  But  he  had  devoted  his  attention  to  the  ques 
tion  of  the  coming  presidential  election,  and  was  not 
unwilling  to  exchange  with  all  whom  he  might  meet 
the  ideas  to  which  he  had  arrived/  This  passage  gives 
some  reason  to  suppose  that,  conscious  of  his  powers, 
he  was  disposed  to  try  them  before  audiences  some 
what  different  from  those  to  which  he  had  been  ac 
customed,  and  therefore,  he  had  come  to  New  Eng 
land/7 

Lincoln  also  made  a  speech  at  Boston,  which,  ac 
cording  to  the  newspaper  report,  was  "  seldom  equalled 
for  sound  reason,  cogent  argument  and  keen  satire/7 


LINCOLN  ENTERS  POLITICS  75 

Three  cheers  were  given  for  the  "Lone  Star"  of  Il 
linois,  Lincoln  being  the  only  Whig  member  from  that 
State. 

All  the  reports  of  this  campaign  from  the  press  and 
interviews  by  leading  politicians  of  the  day  show  that 
Lincoln  had  made  a  wonderful  impression  upon  all 
his  audiences,  and  that  he  appreciably  advanced  the 
cause  of  General  Taylor  as  a  presidential  candidate. 

Herndon  records  the  fact  that  while  making  a  speech 
at  Dedham  in  that  campaign  where  he  had  spoken 
only  a  half-hour,  the  following  occurred: 

"The  bell  that  called  to  the  steam  cars  sounded. 
Mr.  Lincoln  instantly  stopped.  'I  am  engaged  to 
speak  at  Cambridge  to-night/  said  he,  'and  I  must 
leave.'  The  whole  audience  seemed  to  rise  in  protest. 
'Oh,  no!  go  on!  finish  it!'  was  heard  on  every  hand. 
One  gentleman  arose  and  pledged  himself  to  take  his 
horse  and  carry  him  across  the  country.  But  Mr. 
Lincoln  was  inexorable.  'I  can't  take  any  risks/  said 
he.  'I  have  engaged  to  go  to  Cambridge,  and  I  must 
be  there.  I  came  here  as  I  agreed,  and  I  am  going 
there  in  the  same  way.'  A  more  disappointed  audience 
was  never  seen;  but  Mr.  Lincoln  had  fairly  wakened 
it  up,  and  it  stayed  through  the  afternoon  and  into 
the  evening  to  listen  to  other  speakers.  We  tried  to 
get  him  to  come  again,  but  was  impossible." 

After  this  campaign  Lincoln  returned  to  Springfield, 
Illinois.  Following  the  election,  he  returned  again  to 
Washington,  where  he  remained  until  March  4,  1849, 
which  closed  his  congressional  career. 

An  interesting  fact  here  appears.  His  prominence 
in  the  campaign  of  1848,  especially  his  defense  of  Gen 
eral  Taylor  personally  as  a  fit  man  for  President,  led 
some  of  his  friends  to  make  some  effort  with  the  ad- 


76  THE  VOICE  OF  LINCOLN 

ministration  to  procure  for  him  a  desirable  presidential 
appointment. 

It  is  said  with  a  show  of  probability  that  the  Presi 
dent  tendered  him  the  governorship  of  the  territory 
of  Oregon,  as  well  as  the  choice  of  some  other  Western 
appointments.  Acceptance  would  have  required,  how 
ever,  his  removal  from  Springfield.  It  is  said  that  the 
decisive  vote  was  finally  cast  by  Mrs.  Lincoln,  and  the 
country  will  never  know  how  much  it  may  be  indebted 
to  Mrs.  Lincoln  for  this  veto. 


CHAPTER  VII 

LINCOLN  THE  LAWYER 

ASIDE  from  a  few  military  heroes,  and  one  or  two 
other  notable  exceptions,  the  lawyer  has  been  the  occu 
pant  of  the  White  House  from  the  birth  of  the  nation 
until  the  present  hour. 

He  has  constituted  the  potential  and  generally  the 
numerical  majority  in  both  houses  of  Congress;  of  ne 
cessity  he  has  occupied  the  Federal  bench  to  the  ex 
clusion  of  all  other  professions.  And  what  has  been 
true  in  the  nation  has  been  true  in  a  more  or  less 
degree  in  most  of  the  several  States,  so  that,  for  good  or 
ill,  we  have  had  very  largely  a  government  by  lawyers. 

For  twenty-four  years  before  becoming  President 
Abraham  Lincoln  was  engaged  in  the  practice  of  law 
in  both  State  and  Federal  courts  at  Springfield,  Illinois. 
His  preparation  for  his  chosen  profession  should  be  of 
intense  interest,  not  only  to  the  layman  but  to  his 
fellow  lawyers  as  well. 

His  biographers  generally  agree  that  the  first  law- 
book  ever  coming  into  his  hands  was  the  "Revised 
Statutes  of  Indiana,"  which  he  borrowed  while  living 
in  Indiana  from  the  township  constable,  one  David 
Turnham. 

This  volume  contained  not  only  the  statutes  of  In 
diana  but  also  the  Constitution  of  Indiana,  the  Con 
stitution  of  the  United  States,  the  Declaration  of  In 
dependence,  the  Ordinance  of  1787. 

That  he  read  and  reread,  studied,  and  literally 
voured  this  book  there  can  be  no  doubt. 

77 


78  THE  VOICE  OF   LINCOLN 

The  book  itself,  now  treasured  by  Mrs.  Emma 
Winters,  of  Brooklyn,  the  wife  of  a  former  librarian 
of  the  New  York  Law  Institute,  attests  hard  service. 

Turnham  himself  is  authority  for  the  statement  that 
this  book  had  much  to  do  with  influencing  the  boy  to 
study  law  as  his  chosen  profession.  We  are  not  ad 
vised  as  to  when  this  was,  but  it  must  have  been  some 
time  prior  to  his  majority. 

Some  biographers  have  made  light  of  the  influence 
of  this  volume  on  the  mind  of  young  Lincoln.  But 
inasmuch  as  it  was  his  perverse  habit  to  devour  prac 
tically  every  book  that  he  could  get  his  hands  on,  it  is 
not  improbable  that  this  volume  suffered  the  same 
fate. 

One  thing  is  quite  sure,  that  the  Declaration  of  In 
dependence  therein  found  became  finally  the  warp  and 
woof  of  all  his  political  ideas  and  inspirations.  This 
fact  is  more  than  confirmed  in  his  many  addresses, 
especially  in  his  speech  at  Philadelphia,  which  will  be 
referred  to  in  the  chapter  of  Lincoln's  Interpretation 
of  the  Declaration  of  Independence. 

The  very  scarcity  of  his  books  enhanced  their  value 
to  him,  and  it  is  not  difficult  to  presume  that  this 
book,  at  least  upon  constitutional  law,  State  and 
federal,  the  Declaration  of  Independence,  and  the 
Ordinance  of  1787  furnished  much  food  for  his  hungry 
and  precocious  mind. 

The  next  book  he  read  was  Blackstone,  and  this 
while  clerking  in  the  store  for  Offut,  at  New  Salem, 
and  also  when  a  merchant  on  his  own  account  in  part 
nership  with  Berry. 

Tradition  at  least  records  that  some  traveller  came 
that  way  who  had  a  surplus  barrel  of  junk  which  he 
no  longer  cared  to  carry.  He  sold  it  to  Lincoln  for 


LINCOLN  THE   LAWYER  79 

fifty  cents,  barrel  and  contents.  At  the  bottom  of 
this  barrel  were  two  volumes  of  Blackstone. 

At  all  events,  he  read  Blackstone  while  at  New 
Salem.  He  not  only  read  it,  he  studied  it,  he  mastered 
it,  he  knew  it  from  cover  to  cover.  Much  of  his  clear, 
concise  legal  style  is  readily  attributable  to  his  famili 
arity  with  Blackstone's  legal  English. 

In  his  campaign  for  the  legislature  he  met  Major 
John  T.  Stuart,  of  Springfield,  one  of  the  leading  law 
yers  of  Illinois.  Stuart  encouraged  him  in  the  study 
of  law  and  loaned  him  a  number  of  law-books,  which 
Lincoln  took  with  him  from  Springfield  back  to  New 
Salem. 

Lincoln  himself  has  spoken  upon  this  subject  in  the 
following  words : 

"I  began  to  read  those  famous  works  (Blackstone's 
'  Commentaries ')  and  I  had  plenty  of  time,  for  during 
the  long  summer  days  when  the  farmers  were  busy 
with  their  crops,  my  customers  were  few  and  far  be 
tween.  And  the  more  I  read  the  more  intensely  in 
terested  I  became.  Never  in  my  whole  life  was  my 
mind  so  thoroughly  absorbed.  I  read  until  I  devoured 
them." 

Some  years  afterward  Lincoln  was  asked  by  a  young 
man  as  to  how  to  study  law,  to  which  inquiry  he  re 
sponded  : 

"Get  books  and  read  and  study  them  carefully. 
Begin  with  Blackstone's  Commentaries,  and  after 
reading  carefully  through,  say  twice,  take  Chitty's 
Pleadings,  Greenleaf's  Evidence,  and  Story's  Equity 
in  succession.  Work,  work,  work  is  the  main  thing." 

One  can  but  regret  that  so  many  of  our  so-called 
modern  schools  of  law  have  omitted  from  their  course 
of  educational  training  such  standard  works  as  Lin- 


80  THE  VOICE  OF  LINCOLN 

coin  mentions,  works  that  deal  scientifically  with  the 
fundamental  and  philosophical  principles  of  the  law. 

These  masterpieces  of  legal  logic  and  language  have 
been  supplanted  by  a  number  of  so-called  "case  books," 
a  mere  collection  in  more  or  less  abbreviated  form  of 
the  judgments  pronounced  by  some  judge  or  court. 

Now  every  judge  of  experience  well  knows  that  the 
primary  idea  in  the  opinion  of  the  judge  speaking  for 
the  court  is  to  support  and  sustain  the  judgment  en 
tered  in  the  particular  case,  with  a  view  of  discussing 
only  the  questions  raised  in  that  particular  case.  Be 
yond  that  it  is  a  mere  obiter  dictum. 

The  judge  rendering  the  opinion  is  primarily  not 
concerned  with  an  orderly  scientific  discussion  of  the 
fundamental  principle  involved,  its  origin,  history,  and 
development.  He  applies  it  only  to  the  particular 
case  in  defense  of  the  particular  judgment. 

"Case  law"  is  fast  becoming  the  great  bane  of  the 
bench  and  bar. 

Our  old-time  great  thinkers  and  profound  reasoners 
who  conspicuously  honored  and  distinguished  our 
jurisprudence  have  been  succeeded  very  largely  by 
an  industrious,  painstaking,  far-searching  army  of 
sleuths,  of  the  type  of  Sherlock  Holmes,  hunting  some 
precedent  in  some  case,  confidently  assured  that  if  the 
search  be  long  enough  and  far  enough  some  apparently 
parallel  case  may  be  found  to  justify  even  the  most 
absurd  and  ridiculous  contention. 

Case  after  case  is  piled,  Ossa  on  Pelion,  and  about 
an  equal  number  can  be  found  on  each  side;  then  the 
court  is  expected  to  strike  the  balance  and  decide  ac 
cording  to  the  preponderance  of  cases,  rather  than 
the  preponderance  of  reason  and  justice. 

After  all,  the  case  is  at  most  an  illustration  of  some 


LINCOLN  THE  LAWYER  81 

great  underlying  fundamental  principle,  and  is  help 
ful  only  to  the  degree  that  it  tends  to  demonstrate  or 
illustrate  the  soundness  and  application  of  the  prin 
ciple.  The  lawyer  and  law  student  are  intensely  in 
terested  in  the  principle.  Scientific  treatises  upon 
these  fundamental  principles  of  law  and  equity  have 
a  proper  place  in  any  library,  but  imagine  a  library 
made  up  of  case  books, — illustrations,  at  best.  Car 
toons  are  often  very  pertinent  and  are  helpful,  but 
they  do  not  yet  make  a  satisfactory  library. 

Think  of  such  a  library  as  compared  with  the  old 
masters  like  Blackstone,  Chitty,  Greenleaf,  Story, 
and  Kent,  Cooley,  Bishop,  Thompson,  and  the  like, 
or  even  as  compared  with  the  library  Lincoln  had 
when  at  Springfield. 

Hill,  in  his  splendid  book  "  Lincoln  the  Lawyer," 
says :  * 

"A  part  of  Mr.  Lincoln's  law  library  of  1861  is  still 
in  existence.  In  the  Lambert  collection:  Illinois  Con 
veyancer;  Angell  on  Limitations.  In  the  Vanuxem- 
Potter  collection:  A  volume  containing  the  Declara 
tion  of  Independence,  etc.;  Chitty's  Pleadings  and 
Parties;  Stephen's  Commentaries  on  the  Laws  of  Eng 
land;  Greenleaf  on  Evidence,  vol.  I;  Revised  Statutes 
of  Illinois,  1844;  Kent's  Commentaries;  Smith's  Land 
lord  and  Tenant;  Story's  Equity  Jurisprudence,  1843; 
Parsons'  Law  of  Contracts,  2  vols. ;  Wharton's  Criminal 
Law;  Redfield's  Law  of  Railways;  Stephen's  Plead 
ing.  In  the  Orendorf  collection:  Barbour  &  Herring- 
ton,  Eq.  Dig.,  Vol.  3;  Biddle  &  McMurtrie,  Index  to 
Eng.  Com.  Law,  2  vols.;  Taylor  on  Poisons  in  Rela 
tion  to  Medical  Jurisprudence;  Barbour's  Eq.  Dig. 
of  U.  S.  etc.;  3  Curtis'  U.  S.  Dig.,  1846;  Chitty  & 

*  Footnote,  page  292. 


82  THE  VOICE  OF  LINCOLN 

Temple,  Law  of  Carriers;  Angell  &  Ames  on  Corpora 
tions;  1  U.  S.  Digest  for  1847." 

We  do  know  that  the  authors  of  the  works  studied 
and  recommended  by  Lincoln,  have,  during  a  long 
period  of  years,  been  universally  recognized  as  the 
leading  masters  of  law  and  logic.  To  omit  them  from 
the  law  student's  curriculum  would  seem  like  omit 
ting  the  Bible  from  a  school  of  theology  or  Gray's 
" Anatomy"  from  a  school  of  medicine. 

After  all,  the  primary  and  original  principles  of  law 
and  equity,  as  announced  by  these  legal  masters,  have 
never  been  surpassed  in  our  legal  lore,  and  they  are 
to-day  quoted  as  standards  in  practically  all  the  courts 
of  our  land. 

Lincoln's  advice  to  the  young  lawyer  is  strikingly 
significant  in  another  respect,  to  wit,  the  logical  order 
in  which  he  names  the  books  for  the  young  law  student 
to  read: 

1.  The  body  of  the  law  as  scientifically  arranged 
and  stated  by  Blackstone,  the  greatest  law-book  of 
its  day,  perhaps  of  any  other  day. 

2.  The  manner  of  framing  a  legal  issue,  as  described 
and  discussed  in  Chitty's  "  Pleadings." 

3.  The  manner  of  proving  that  issue — the  evidence, 
and  testimony,  what  is  competent  and  what  is  not 
competent,  and  the  measure  of  proof  required,  etc., 
as  viewed  by  Greenleaf . 

4.  The  conscience  of  the  chancellor  is  appealed  to 
as  a  court  of  equity  to  provide  a  remedy  for  some  wrong 
wherein  the  law  is  short  or  deficient,  and  Story,  the 
great  jurist,  is  admittedly  a  master  in  this  branch  of 
our  jurisprudence. 

Lincoln  has  heretofore  expressed  his  own  view  of 
the  study  of  the  law  by  the  word  "  devoured."  Hern- 


LINCOLN  THE   LAWYER  83 

don  relates*  an  interesting  and  characteristic  incident  in 
Lincoln's  early  studies,  where  he  draws  a  most  signifi 
cant  distinction  between  reading  and  studying.  Let 
the  student  emulate  it.  It  occurred  while  Lincoln  was 
living  at  New  Salem: 

A  man  by  the  name  of  Russell  Godby  employed 
Lincoln  to  do  farm  work.  One  day  he  was  much  sur 
prised  to  find  him  sitting  barefoot  on  the  summit  of 
a  woodpile  and  attentively  reading  a  book. 

"  This  being  an  unusual  thing  for  farm  hands  in 
that  early  day  to  do,  I  asked  him,"  relates  Godby, 
"  what  he  was  reading.  '  I'm  not  reading,'  he  answered. 
'I  am  studying.'  ' Studying  what?'  I  enquired.  'Law, 
sir,'  was  the  emphatic  response.  It  was  really  too 
much  for  me,  as  I  looked  at  him  sitting  there  proud 
as  Cicero.  ' Great  God  Almighty!'  I  exclaimed  and 
passed  on." 

As  Lincoln  said  before: 

"The  more  I  read  (Blackstone)  the  more  intensely 
interested  I  became.  Never  in  my  whole  life  was  my 
mind  so  thoroughly  absorbed.  I  read  until  I  devoured 
them." 

At  last  the  youth  had  found  the  yearning  of  his  life. 
He  was  not  only  "thoroughly  absorbed,"  but  entirely 
oblivious  to  everything  else.  His  conduct  caused  much 
comment  in  the  neighborhood: 

"He  dwelt  altogether  in  the  land  of  thought.  His 
deep  meditation  and  abstraction  easily  induced  the 
belief  among  his  horny  handed  companions  that  he 
was  lazy.  .  .  .  His  chief  delight  during  the  day  if 
unmolested  was  to  lie  down  under  the  shade  of  some 
inviting  tree  and  read  and  study.  .  .  .  No  one  had 
ajnore  retentive  memory.  If  he  read  or  heard  a  good 

*  Vol.  I,  page  102. 


84  THE  VOICE  OF  LINCOLN 

thing  it  never  escaped  him.  His  power  of  concentration 
was  intense,  and  in  the  ability  through  analysis  to  strip 
bare  a  proposition  he  was  unexcelled.  His  thoughtful 
and  investigating  mind  dug  down  after  ideas  and 
never  stopped  until  bottom  facts  were  reached." 

Constable  Turnham  says  as  to  his  later  years  in 
Indiana : 

"  As  he  shot  up  he  seemed  to  change  in  appearance 
and  action.  Although  quick-witted  and  ready  with 
an  answer,  he  began  to  exhibit  deep  thoughtfulness 
and  was  so  often  lost  in  studied  reflection  we  could 
not  help  noticing  the  strange  turn  in  his  actions." 

Herndon  says:* 

"But  Lincoln  kept  on  at  his  studies.  Wherever  he 
was  and  whenever  he  could  do  so  the  book  was  brought 
into  use.  He  carried  it  with  him  in  his  rambles  through 
the  woods  and  his  walks  to  the  river.  When  night 
came  he  read  it  by  the  aid  of  any  friendly  light  he  could 
find.  Frequently  he  went  down  to  the  cooper's  shop  and 
kindled  a  fire  out  of  the  waste  material  lying  about,  and 
by  the  light  it  afforded  read  until  far  into  the  night." 

Herndon  quotes  one  of  his  companions  as  saying: 

"He  never  appeared  to  be  a  hard  student,  as  he 
seemed  to  master  his  studies  with  little  effort,  until  he 
commenced  the  study  of  the  law.  In  that  he  became 
wholly  engrossed,  and  began  for  the  first  time  to  avoid 
the  society  of  men,  in  order  that  he  might  have  more 
time  for  study."f 

Henry  McHenry,  who  knew  him  well  said: 

"He  was  so  studious  and  absorbed  in  his  applica 
tion  at  one  time  that  his  friends  noticed  that  he  was 
so  emaciated  we  feared  it  might  bring  on  mental  de 
rangement." 

*  Vol.  I,  page  102.  f  Herndon,  vol.  I,  p.  112. 


LINCOLN  THE  LAWYER  85 

Holland  says: 

"One  who  remembers  his  habits  during  this  period 
says  that  he  went,  day  after  day,  for  weeks,  and  sat 
under  an  oak  tree  on  a  hill  near  New  Salem  and  read, 
moving  around  to  keep  in  the  shade,  as  the  sun  moved. 
He  was  so  much  absorbed  that  some  people  thought 
and  said  that  he  was  crazy.  Not  unfrequently  he  met 
and  passed  his  best  friends  without  noticing  them. 
The  truth  was  that  he  had  found  the  pursuit  of  his 
life,  and  had  become  very  much  in  earnest." 

His  presence  in  Springfield  during  his  first  term  in 
the  legislature  afforded  him  a  splendid  opportunity  of 
further  pursuing  his  studies  and  meeting  also  some  of 
the  really  big  lawyers  of  Illinois.  They  seemed  to  give 
him  hope  and  spur  and  help  materially  to  "stir  the 
gifts  that  were  within  him." 

Upon  his  admission  to  the  bar  in  March,  1837,  he 
was  paid  the  very  high  compliment  of  being  invited 
to  become  the  junior  partner  of  Major  John  T.  Stuart, 
a  fellow  member  of  the  Illinois  Legislature.  Stuart 
knew  better  than  any  one  else  the  thoroughness  of 
Lincoln's  equipment  for  a  great  legal  career. 

Lincoln's  friend,  Joshua  F.  Speed,  relates  in  a  very 
interesting  way  Lincoln's  arrival  in  Springfield  to 
practise  law  as  follows: 

"He  had  ridden  into  town  on  a  borrowed  horse/' 
relates  Speed,  "and  engaged  from  the  only  cabinet 
maker  in  the  village  a  single  bedstead.  He  came  into 
my  store,  set  his  saddle-bags  on  the  counter,  and  en 
quired  what  the  furniture  for  a  single  bedstead  would 
cost.  I  took  slate  and  pencil,  made  a  calculation,  and 
found  the  sum  for  furniture  complete  would  amount 
to  seventeen  dollars  in  all.  Said  he:  'It  is  probably 
cheap  enough;  but  I  want  to  say  that,  cheap  as  it  is, 


86  THE  VOICE  OF  LINCOLN 

I  have  not  the  money  to  pay.  But  if  you  will  credit 
me  until  Christmas,  and  my  experiment  here  as  a 
lawyer  is  a  success,  I  will  pay  you  then.  If  I  fail  in 
that  I  will  probably  never  pay  you  at  all.'  The  tone 
of  his  voice  was  so  melancholy  that  I  felt  for  him.  I 
looked  up  at  him  and  I  thought  then,  as  I  think  now, 
that  I  never  saw  so  gloomy  and  melancholy  a  face  in 
my  life.  I  said  to  him,  'So  small  a  debt  seems  to 
affect  you  so  deeply,  I  think  I  can  suggest  a  plan  by 
which  you  will  be  able  to  attain  your  end  without  in 
curring  any  debt.  I  have  a  very  large  room  and  a 
very  large  double  bed  in  it,  which  you  are  perfectly 
welcome  to  share  with  me  if  you  choose.'  ' Where  is 
your  room?'  he  asked.  'Upstairs,'  said  I,  pointing  to 
the  stairs  leading  from  the  store  to  my  room.  With 
out  saying  a  word  he  took  his  saddle-bags  on  his 
arm,  went  upstairs,  set  them  down  on  the  floor, 
came  down  again,  and  with  a  face  beaming  with 
pleasure  and  smiles,  exclaimed:  'Well,  Speed,  I'm 
moved." 

He  was  now  to  have  the  opportunity  for  which  he 
had  long  looked  and  labored,  and  his  friends  looked 
forward  with  interest  and  anxiety  to  the  tests  and 
trials  through  which  he  must  pass  in  the  clash  and 
conflict  of  legislative  hall  and  judicial  forum. 

There  is  no  other  place  known  among  men  where 
the  measure  and  merit  of  mind  is  so  accurately  ascer 
tained  as  at  the  trial  table  before  judge  or  jury, 
where  one  or  more  men  of  presumably  equal  ability 
are  engaged  upon  either  side  for  the  express  purpose 
of  luring  into  pitfalls,  exposing  the  weakness  and  fal 
lacy  of  argument,  overthrowing  a  false  premise  of  fact 
or  law,  and  by  direct  and  flank  attack  discounting 
and  defeating  a  ruling  and  judgment. 


LINCOLN  THE   LAWYER  87 

What  was  to  be  the  verdict  of  the  profession  and  of 
the  public  upon  this  new  limb  of  the  law? 

We  have  already  noted  his  intellectual  preparation, 
which,  however,  did  not  cease  with  his  admission  to 
the  bar,  but  continued  throughout  his  practice  as  a 
lawyer  and  his  administration  as  President. 

But  what  were  to  be  his  ethical  and  moral  standards 
in  the  practice  of  the  law? 

Was  Lincoln  still  to  possess  and  practise  his  "  pas 
sion  for  justice,"  as  noted  in  an  earlier  chapter?  Was 
he  still  to  be  the  " Honest  Abe"  as  he  was  known  at 
New  Salem? 

First,  let  him  speak  for  himself  as  to  his  ideals  in 
the  practice  of  the  law. 

Upon  his  death  there  was  found  among  his  effects 
some  loose,  undated  sheets  in  his  own  handwriting, 
that  he  had  evidently  prepared  to  use  as  the  basis  of 
an  address  or  lecture  to  lawyers,  or  law  students. 
They  should  be  printed  in  burning  letters  and  hung 
in  every  law  college  and  law  office: 

"  Extemporaneous  speaking  should  be  practised  and 
cultivated.  It  is  the  lawyer's  avenue  to  the  public. 
However  able  and  faithful  he  may  be  in  other  respects, 
people  are  slow  to  bring  him  business  if  he  cannot 
make  a  speech.  And  yet  there  is  not  a  more  fatal 
error  to  young  lawyers  than  relying  too  much  on 
speech-making.  If  any  one,  upon  his  rare  powers  of 
speaking,  shall  claim  an  exemption  from  the  drudgery 
of  the  law,  his  case  is  a  failure  in  advance.  Discourage 
litigation.  Persuade  your  neighbors  to  compromise 
whenever  you  can.  Point  out  to  them  how  the  nomi 
nal  winner  is  often  a  real  loser — in  fees,  expenses,  and 
waste  of  time.  As  a  peacemaker,  the  lawyer  has  a 
superior  opportunity  of  being  a  good  man.  There  will 


88  THE  VOICE  OF  LINCOLN 

still  be  business  enough.  Never  stir  up  litigation.  A 
worse  man  can  scarcely  be  found  than  one  who  does 
this.  Who  can  be  more  nearly  a  fiend  than  he  who 
habitually  overhauls  the  register  of  deeds  in  search  of 
defects  in  titles,  whereon  to  stir  up  strife  and  put 
money  in  his  pocket?  A  moral  tone  ought  to  be  in 
fused  into  the  profession  which  should  drive  such  men 
out  of  it.  ...  There  is  a  vague  popular  belief  that 
lawyers  are  necessarily  dishonest.  I  say  vague  be 
cause,  when  we  consider  to  what  extent  confidence 
and  honors  are  reposed  in  and  conferred  upon  lawyers 
by  the  people,  it  appears  improbable  that  their  im 
pression  of  dishonesty  is  very  distinct  and  vivid.  Yet 
the  impression  is  common — almost  universal.  Let  no 
young  man  choosing  the  law  for  a  calling  for  a  moment 
yield  to  the  popular  belief.  Resolve  to  be  honest  at 
all  events;  and  if,  in  your  own  judgment,  you  cannot 
be  an  honest  lawyer,  resolve  to  be  honest  without 
being  a  lawyer.  Choose  some  other  occupation  rather 
than  one  in  the  choosing  of  which  you  do,  in  advance, 
consent  to  be  a  knave." 

Conceive,  if  you  can,  this  code  of  ethics  carried  out 
hi  every  court-room,  not  merely  to  the  letter,  but  to 
the  spirit,  by  every  counsellor  at  law.  What  a  change 
would  be  wrought  in  the  administration  of  justice  in 
the  forty-eight  commonwealths  of  our  country ! 

It  is  regrettable  to-day  that  so  many  men  have  one 
code  for  their  personal  life,  another  code  for  their  pro 
fessional  life,  and  perchance  yet  another  for  their  busi 
ness  life. 

Lincoln  had  but  one  code,  the  code  of  justice,  the 
code  of  the  Golden  Rule,  the  code  of  conscience. 

Herndon  speaks  of  Lincoln's  early  practice  as 
Stuart's  partner  as  follows: 


LINCOLN  THE   LAWYER  89 

"  Stephen  T.  Logan  was  judge  of  the  Circuit  court, 
and  Stephen  A.  Douglas  was  prosecuting  attorney. 
Among  the  attorneys  we  find  many  promising  spirits. 
Edward  D.  Baker,  John  T.  Stuart,  Cyrus  Walker, 
Samuel  H.  Treat,  Jesse  B.  Thomas,  George  Forquer, 
Dan  Stone,  Ninian  W.  Edwards,  John  J.  Hardin,  Schuy- 
ler  Strong,  A.  T.  Bledsoe,  and  Josiah  Lamborn — a 
galaxy  of  names,  each  destined  to  shed  more  or  less 
lustre  on  the  history  of  the  State.  While  I  am  inclined 
to  believe  that  Lincoln  did  not,  after  entering  Stuart's 
office,  do  as  much  deep  and  assiduous  studying  as 
people  generally  credit  him  with,  yet  I  am  confident 
he  absorbed  not  a  little  learning  by  contact  with  the 
great  minds  who  thronged  about  the  courts  and  State 
Capitol.  The  books  of  Stuart  and  Lincoln,  during 
1837,  show  a  practice  more  extensive  than  lucrative, 
for  while  they  received  a  number  of  fees,  only  two  or 
three  of  them  reached  fifty  dollars;  and  one  of  these 
has  a  credit  of:  'Coat  to  Stuart,  $15.00,'  showing  that 
they  were  compelled,  now  and  then,  even  to  'trade 
out'  their  earnings.  The  litigation  was  as  limited  in 
importance  as  in  extent.  There  were  no  great  corpora 
tions,  as  in  this  progressive  day,  retaining  for  counsel 
the  brains  of  the  bar  in  every  county  seat,  but  the 
greatest  as  well  as  the  least  had  to  join  the  general 
scramble  for  practice." 

Lincoln  was  then  twenty-nine  years  of  age  and  was 
still  a  member  of  the  State  Legislature.  His  practice 
was  naturally  limited  to  the  usual  pioneer  litigation, 
such  as  assaults,  trespass  on  real  estate,  daily  contracts 
between  the  neighbors,  accounts,  notes,  and  the  like. 
His  spare  time  he  devoted  to  further  study  of  the  law, 
public  addresses,  and  to  faithful  and  regular  attendance 
upon  "The  Young  Men's  Lyceum." 


90  THE  VOICE  OF   LINCOLN 

Lincoln's  partnership  with  Stuart  was  compara 
tively  brief,  only  about  four  years,  from  1837  to  1841. 
Much  of  this  time  Stuart  was  actively  engaged  in  polit 
ical  campaigns  or  in  his  congressional  sittings  at  Wash 
ington.  Hence  he  was  able  to  give  but  little  attention 
to  their  legal  practice  at  Springfield.  Necessarily  this 
fell  on  Lincoln's  shoulders.  The  routine  and  details 
of  his  early  office  work  thus  forced  upon  him  were 
doubtless  of  great  value  in  training  and  discipline  as 
well  as  practical  experience. 

Litigation  in  that  early  day  was  not  as  important, 
when  measured  by  the  amount  involved,  or  the  com 
plexity  of  the  legal  problems  as  it  was  in  later  years,  and 
yet  we  find  many  very  important  cases,  so  far  as  prin 
ciple  was  concerned,  intrusted  to  the  new  firm.  Dur 
ing  these  four  short  years  at  least  a  half  a  dozen  of  the 
firm's  cases  were  taken  to  the  Supreme  Court,  and  Lin 
coln  appeared  in  the  argument  of  three  or  four  of  them. 

But  the  biggest  lawyer  in  Springfield  had  his  eye 
upon  the  rising  young  barrister.  It  was  none  other 
than  the  leader  of  the  Springfield  bar,  who  could  no 
doubt  have  had  his  choice  of  any  lawyer  in  Springfield 
for  a  junior  partner. 

As  Stuart,  with  his  legal  and  political  standing  in 
that  community,  had  paid  Lincoln  a  very  high  compli 
ment  by  inviting  him  to  be  his  junior  partner  in  1837, 
so  now,  in  1841,  Lincoln  received  a  much  higher  com 
pliment  by  being  invited  to  become  the  junior  partner 
of  Judge  Stephen  F.  Logan. 

Logan  had  then  the  reputation  of  being  the  best 
"Nisi  Prius  lawyer  in  the  State." 

Herndon,  who  knew  him  personally  and  intimately, 
spoke  of  him  as  follows: 

"Judge  Logan  was  a  very  orderly  but  somewhat 


LINCOLN  THE   LAWYER  91 

technical  lawyer.  ...  He  was  assiduous  in  study 
and  tireless  in  search  of  legal  principles.  He  was  in 
dustrious  and  very  thrifty,  delighted  to  make  and 
save  money,  and  died  a  rich  man.  .  .  .  Lincoln  was 
five  years  younger,  and  yet  his  mind  and  make-up  so 
impressed  Logan  that  he  was  invited  into  the  partner 
ship  with  him.  Logan's  example  had  a  good  effect 
on  Lincoln,  and  it  stimulated  him  to  unusual  endeavors. 
For  the  first  time  he  realized  the  effectiveness  of  order 
and  method  in  work,  but  his  old  habits  eventually 
overcame  him.  .  .  .  Logan  was  scrupulously  exact, 
and  used  extraordinary  care  in  the  preparation  of 
papers.  His  words  were  well  chosen,  and  his  style  of 
composition  was  stately  and  formal." 

This  partnership  between  Logan  and  Lincoln  lasted 
about  two  years.  They  were  both  candidates  for  Con 
gress  at  the  same  time,  and  the  presumption  is,  with 
more  or  less  evidence  to  support  it,  that  their  rivalry 
brought  some  bitterness  between  them.  At  all  events, 
it  was  at  this  time,  in  1843,  that  Lincoln  retired  from 
the  firm,  and  invited  William  H.  Herndon,  who  was 
just  beginning  the  practice  of  law,  to  become  his  junior 
partner. 

Herndon  himself  says: 

"I  was  young  in  the  practice  and  was  painfully 
aware  of  my  want  of  ability  and  experience;  but  when 
he  remarked  in  his  earnest,  honest  way,  '  Billy,  I  can 
trust  you,  if  you  can  trust  me/  I  felt  relieved,  and 
accepted  the  generous  proposal.  It  has  always  been  a 
matter  of  pride  with  me  that  during  our  long  partner 
ship,  continuing  on  until  it  was  dissolved  by  the  bullet 
of  the  assassin  Booth,  we  never  had  any  personal  con 
troversy  or  disagreement.  I  never  stood  in  his  way 
for  political  honors  or  office,  and  I  believe  we  under- 


92  THE  VOICE  OF  LINCOLN 

stood  each  other  perfectly.  In  after  years,  when  he 
became  more  prominent,  and  our  practice  grew  to 
respectable  proportions,  other  ambitious  practitioners 
undertook  to  supplant  me  in  the  partnership.  One 
of  the  latter,  more  zealous  than  wise,  charged  that  I 
was  in  a  certain  way  weakening  the  influence  of  the 
firm.  I  am  flattered  to  know  that  Lincoln  turned  on 
this  last  named  individual  with  the  retort  'I  know  my 
own  business,  I  reckon.  I  know  Billy  Herndon  better 
than  anybody,  and  even  if  what  you  say  of  him  is  true 
I  intend  to  stick  by  him.7  ' 

While  Lincoln  was  a  partner  of  Logan's,  Herndon 
relates  the  following  incident: 

"I  have  before  me  a  letter  written  by  Lincoln  at 
this  time  to  the  proprietors  of  a  wholesale  store  in 
Louisville,  for  whom  suit  had  been  brought,  in  which, 
after  notifying  the  latter  of  the  sale  of  certain  real 
estate  in  satisfaction  of  their  judgment,  he  adds:  ' As 
to  the  real  estate  we  cannot  attend  to  it.  We  are  not 
real  estate  agents,  we  are  lawyers.  We  recommend 
that  you  give  the  charge  of  it  to  Mr.  Isaac  S.  Britton, 
a  trustworthy  man,  and  one  whom  the  Lord  made 
on  purpose  for  such  business/ 

Mr.  Herndon  comments: 

"He  gravely  signs  the  firm  name,  Logan  and  Lin 
coln,  to  this  unlawyerlike  letter  and  sends  it  on  its 
way.  Logan  never  would  have  written  such  a  letter." 

Whether  Logan  " would  have  written  such  a  letter" 
or  not  we  do  not  know,  neither  need  we  care.  Lincoln 
wrote  it  because  he  was  true  then,  as  he  was  true  al 
ways,  to  his  convictions  as  to  what  was  and  what  was 
not  a  lawyer's  business,  and  what  he  did  in  this  case 
squares  exactly  with  his  sense  of  professional  duty  and 
honor  and  represents  his  own  practical  distinction  of 


LINCOLN  THE   LAWYER  93 

what  was  "law"  business  and  what  was  "real  estate'7 
business. 

Lincoln  was  a  lawyer,  first,  last  and  all  the  time, 
and  be  it  said  in  his  honor  that  he  never  lowered  the 
professional  standards  in  his  twenty-four  years  of 
practice. 

He  was  not  a  "money-getter,"  neither  was  he  any 
body's  "hired  man."  I  think  the  public  will  most 
respectfully  differ  from  Mr.  Herndon  in  saying  that 
this  was  an  " unlawyerlike  letter."  This  illustrates 
the  difference  between  the  point  of  view  of  Lincoln 
and  the  point  of  view  of  Herndon. 

The  prerogatives  of  the  senior  partner  in  a  law  firm 
seem  to  have  been  superior  in  that  early  day  to  what 
they  are  now. 

Mr.  Lincoln  upon  his  retirement  from  the  firm  of 
Logan  and  Lincoln  in  1843  seemed  desirous  of  being 
the  senior  partner  in  a  new  firm,  and  it  was  really  from 
the  year  1843  forward  that  he  developed  and  became 
distinguished  as  a  great  lawyer  who  won  verdicts  and 
judgments. 

But  his  early  campaigns  for  Congress  upon  his  own 
account,  as  well  as  his  campaigns  for  the  Whig  tickets 
upon  the  party's  account  consumed  much  of  his  time 
in  his  earlier  years.  His  election  to  Congress  in  1846 
suspended  for  the  time  being  his  activities  in  the  law. 

At  all  events,  what  he  did  prior  to  that  time  was  so 
largely  preparatory  to  his  future  contests  and  triumphs 
that  it  deserves  no  further  discussion  here.  The  really 
great  lawyer  will  appear  upon  his  return  to  Springfield 
in  1849,  and  from  thenceforward  to  his  election  as 
President. 


CHAPTER  VIII 

LINCOLN  THE  LAWYER 

(CONTINUED) 

LINCOLN  had  just  passed  the  fortieth  mile-stone 
when,  at  the  end  of  his  one  term  in  Congress,  he  re 
turned  from  Washington  to  resume  the  practice  of  the 
law. 

As  his  contact  with  the  leading  men  of  Springfield 
had  stimulated  him  to  a  deeper  and  broader  study 
of  the  law  in  his  earlier  days,  so  now  the  big,  brainy 
men  of  Washington  and  the  East  whom  he  had  met 
during  these  last  two  years  had  given  him  a  new 
stimulus  for  further  education  and  excellence  in  the 
law. 

As  never  before  he  proceeded  at  once  "to  stir  the 
gifts  of  God  within  him"  in  wider,  deeper  study  of  the 
law,  the  sciences,  and  history. 

Herndon  relates  a  marked  change  in  Lincoln's  pur 
suit  of  the  law: 

"I  could  notice  a  difference  in  Lincoln's  movement 
as  a  lawyer  from  this  time  forward.  He  had  begun  to 
realize  a  certain  lack  of  discipline — a  want  of  mental 
training  and  method.  Ten  years  had  wrought  some 
change  in  the  law,  and  more  in  the  lawyers,  of  Illinois. 
The  conviction  had  settled  in  the  minds  of  the  people 
that  the  pyrotechnics  of  court-room  and  stump  oratory 
did  not  necessarily  imply  extensive  or  profound  ability 
in  the  lawyer  who  resorted  to  it.  The  courts  were  be 
coming  graver  and  more  learned,  and  the  lawyer  was 

94 


LINCOLN  THE   LAWYER  95 

learning  as  a  preliminary  and  indispensable  condition 
to  success  that  he  must  be  a  close  reasoner,  besides 
having  at  command  a  broad  knowledge  of  the  princi 
ples  on  which  the  statutory  law  is  constructed.  .  .  . 
And  now  he  began  to  make  up  for  time  lost  in  politics 
by  studying  the  law  in  earnest.  No  man  had  greater 
power  of  application  than  he.  Once  fixing  his  mind 
on  any  subject,  nothing  could  interfere  with  or  disturb 
him.  Frequently  I  would  go  out  on  the  circuit  with 
him.  We,  usually,  at  the  little  country  inns  occupied 
the  same  bed.  In  most  cases  the  beds  were  too  short 
for  him,  and  his  feet  would  hang  over  the  foot-board, 
thus  exposing  a  limited  expanse  of  shin  bone.  Placing 
a  candle  on  a  chair  at  the  head  of  the  bed,  he  would 
read  and  study  for  hours.  I  have  known  him  to  study 
in  this  position  till  two  o'clock  in  the  morning.  Mean 
while  I  and  others  who  chanced  to  occupy  the  same 
room  would  be  safely  and  soundly  asleep." 

Holland,  in  his  biography,  at  page  124,  notes  the  same 
change  in  habits  of  study  and  research: 

"On  returning  to  his  home,  Mr.  Lincoln  entered 
upon  the  duties  of  his  profession,  and  devoted  himself 
to  them  through  a  series  of  years,  less  disturbed  by 
diversions  into  State  and  national  politics  than  he  had 
been  during  any  previous  period  of  his  business  life.  .  .  . 

"Mr.  Lincoln's  lack  of  early  advantages  and  the 
limited  character  of  his  education  were  constant  sub 
jects  of  regret  with  him.  His  intercourse  with  mem 
bers  of  Congress  and  with  the  cultivated  society  of 
Washington  had,  without  doubt,  made  him  feel  his 
deficiencies  more  keenly  than  ever  before.  .  .  . 

1 '  It  was  at  this  period  that  he  undertook  to  improve 
himself  somewhat  by  attention  to  mathematics,  and 
actually  mastered  the  first  six  books  of  Euclid. " 


96  THE  VOICE  OF  LINCOLN 

Herndon  confirms  this  fact  as  to  Euclid  and  further 
relates  that  his  study  of  Euclid  was  chiefly  done  upon 
the  circuit  while  Lincoln's  fellow  lawyers  were  com 
fortably  asleep. 

Touching  this  study,  Lincoln  once  said: 

"In  the  course  of  my  reading  I  constantly  came 
upon  the  word  '  demonstrate ' — I  thought  at  first  that 
I  understood  its  meaning,  but  soon  became  satisfied 
that  I  did  not.  I  consulted  Webster's  Dictionary. 
That  told  of  certain  proof,  '  proof  beyond  the  probabil 
ity  of  doubt';  but  I  could  form  no  sort  of  idea  what 
sort  of  proof  that  was. 

"I  consulted  all  the  dictionaries  and  books  of  refer 
ence  I  could  find,  but  with  no  better  results.  You 
might  as  well  have  defined  blue  to  a  blind  man.  At 
last  I  said,  '  Lincoln,  you  can  never  make  a  lawyer  if 
you  do  not  understand  what  demonstrate  means.'  I 
studied  Euclid  until  I  could  give  any  proposition  in 
the  first  six  books  at  sight.  I  then  found  out  what 
demonstrate  meant." 

What  a  splendid  lesson  here,  not  only  for  the  student 
and  the  lawyer,  but  also  for  every  man  that  has  to  do 
with  the  study  of  any  science  where  logic  is  a  factor. 
To  the  jury  it  was  a  case  of  "  demonstration,"  to  the 
judge  it  was  a  case  of  "  demonstration,"  to  the  public 
in  a  political  argument  it  was  likewise  a  case  of  "  dem 
onstration,"  and  afterward  when  he  became  President 
of  the  United  States  his  one  great  purpose  was  to 
" demonstrate"  the  wisdom  and  justice  of  his  policy— 
the  Union. 

But  we  are  now  concerned  with  him  as  a  lawyer. 
You  will  remember  in  the  preceding  chapter  his  views 
on  legal  ethics.  Bear  in  mind  that  Lincoln's  words 
there  quoted  were  not  'glittering  generalities.'  They 


LINCOLN  THE   LAWYER  97 

were  not  mere  theories  or  abstractions.  They  were 
the  root  and  branch  taken  from  his  practice.  In  short, 
he  put  his  ideals  into  his  cases. 

Lincoln  realized  reverently  that  the  lawyer  was  first 
"an  officer  of  the  court"  in  the  administration  of  jus 
tice  and  as  such  the  attorney  or  agent  of  the  public 
to  do  justice,  before  he  became  an  attorney  or  agent 
of  some  client  to  win  his  cause. 

His  great  ability  in  the  conduct  of  cases  became  so 
familiar  to  the  people  of  Illinois  that  no  doubt  he  was 
often  sought  for  by  prospective  clients  to  take  causes 
that  were  unconscionable.  At  all  events,  before  Lin 
coln  would  accept  a  retainer  every  cause  had  to  be 
first  tried  out  in  the  '  court  of  conscience.7  This  was 
God's  court;  it  was  Lincoln's  court,  and  a  favorable 
judgment  had  to  be  given  here  first  before  he  proceeded 
into  man's  court  with  any  cause  either  for  plaintiff  or 
defendant. 

No  case  better  illustrates  this  conscientious  convic 
tion  of  Lincoln  than  the  following  incident.  A  client 
in  Lincoln's  office  was  talking  very  earnestly  and  in  low 
tone  to  Lincoln  about  a  case  in  which  he  desired  to 
employ  him.  One  person  in  the  office  overheard  the 
conversation  and  related  Mr.  Lincoln's  reply,  as  fol 
lows,  in  a  letter  addressed  to  Mr.  Herndon: 

"Yes,"  he  said,  "we  can  doubtless  gain  your  case 
for  you;  we  can  set  a  whole  neighborhood  at  logger 
heads;  we  can  distress  a  widowed  mother  and  her  six 
fatherless  children,  and  thereby  get  for  you  six  hundred 
dollars  to  which  you  seem  to  have  a  legal  claim,  but 
which  rightfully  belongs,  it  appears  to  me,  as  much  to 
the  woman  and  her  children  as  it  does  to  you.  You 
must  remember  that  some  things  legally  right  are  not 
morally  right.  We  shall  not  take  your  case,  but  will 


98  THE  VOICE   OF   LINCOLN 

give  you  a  little  advice  for  which  we  will  charge  you 
nothing.  You  seem  to  be  a  sprightly,  energetic  man; 
we  would  advise  you  to  try  your  hand  at  making  six 
hundred  dollars  in  some  other  way." 

Many  instances  of  this  character  might  be  cited. 
Indeed,  after  he  got  into  the  midst  of  a  case,  if  he  found 
out  that  his  client  had  misrepresented  things  to  him, 
had  lied  to  him  about  the  facts  of  the  case,  and  it  turned 
out  during  the  progress  of  the  trial  that  the  judgment 
ought  to  be  against  his  client,  he  not  unfrequently 
would  say  so  directly  to  the  court.  In  one  noted  in 
stance  he  abandoned  the  case. 

Curtis  in  his  biography  quotes  Leonard  Swett,  the 
great  lawyer  of  Chicago,  and  the  great  personal  and 
political  friend  of  Lincoln,  as  follows: 

"Once  he  (Lincoln)  was  prosecuting  a  civil  suit,  in 
the  course  of  which  evidence  was  introduced  showing 
that  his  client  was  attempting  a  fraud.  Lincoln  rose 
and  went  to  his  hotel  in  deep  disgust.  The  judge  sent 
for  him;  he  refused  to  come.  'Tell  the  judge, '  he  said, 
'my  hands  are  dirty;  I  came  over  to  wash  them." 

Lincoln  quit  the  case.  His  conduct  will  be  a  shock 
to  some  modern  lawyers.  But  this  was  Lincoln's  char 
acteristic  way  of  dealing  with  frauds  and  shams. 

Frequently  in  the  trial  of  a  cause,  if  he  had  good 
reason  to  believe  that  his  client  was  wrong,  or  if  it  was 
a  criminal  case  that  his  client  was  guilty,  he  seemed  to 
lose  heart  because  he  had  lost  the  approval  of  his  con 
science,  and  left  his  associate  to  conduct  the  cause. 

In  one  noted  instance,  where  there  was  a  large 
amount  involved,  he  turned  to  his  associate  counsel 
and  said: 

"Our  client  is  wrong.  I  can't  proceed  further  with 
the  case.  You  will  have  to  conduct  it  alone." 


LINCOLN  THE   LAWYER  99 

Associate  counsel  did  conduct  it  alone  and  won  the 
case.  He  got  a  fee  of  nine  hundred  dollars.  He 
offered  to  share  it  with  Lincoln,  but  not  a  cent  would 
he  take.  Lincoln  believed  it  was  " tainted  money." 
His  conscience  could  not  approve  of  it. 

One  time,  when  he  was  engaged  with  Judge  Parks  in 
the  defense  of  a  prisoner  charged  with  larceny,  he 
turned  to  Parks  and  said: 

"If  you  can  say  anything  for  the  man,  do  it,  I  can't; 
if  I  attempt  it,  the  jury  will  see  I  think  he  is  guilty,  and 
convict  him." 

Lincoln  was  once  engaged  in  the  defense  of  a  prisoner 
who  was  charged  with  aggravated  assault  and  battery. 
He  was  persuaded  that  the  prosecuting  witness  had 
greatly  exaggerated  his  account  of  the  assault,  and 
when  the  prosecuting  attorney  turned  the  witness 
over  to  Lincoln  for  cross-examination  he  merely  asked 
him  one  question: 

"Well,  my  friend,  what  ground  did  you  and  my 
client  here  fight  over?" 

The  witness  answered: 

"About  six  acres." 

"Well,"  said  Mr.  Lincoln,  "don't  you  think  this 
is  an  almighty  small  crop  of  fight  to  gather  from  such 
a  big  piece  of  ground?" 

The  answer  was  such  as  to  laugh  the  whole  case 
out  of  court. 

One  quality  about  Lincoln  that  his  opposing  counsel 
always  feared,  was  that  he  would  "ring  in"  some 
thing  that  they  could  not  anticipate.  An  instance 
of  his  cleverness  in  this  respect  appears  in  a  case  in 
which  he  was  opposing  his  former  partner,  Judge 
Logan. 

Judge  Logan  had  the  closing  argument  and  Lincoln 


100  THE  VOICE   OF   LINCOLN 

well  knew  his  power  and  persuasiveness  with  jurors 
and  undertook  to  caution  them  against  being  over- 
persuaded  by  the  judge;  that  it  was  for  them  to  look 
carefully  to  the  evidence  and  the  law  as  given  by  his 
honor,  and  not  to  put  entire  confidence  in  what  Judge 
Logan  might  say,  however  plausible  he  might  be.  The 
judge  himself  was  sometimes  mistaken  and  didn't 
know  it.  As  an  evidence  of  Judge  Logan's  mistaken 
judgment  Lincoln  called  attention  to  the  fact  that  at 
that  very  time  Judge  Logan  had  made  an  error  in 
putting  on  his  shirt,  the  plaiting,  instead  of  being  in 
the  front,  was  in  the  back.  Lincoln  implied  that  a 
man  that  didn't  know  enough  to  put  on  his  shirt 
right  might  be  mistaken  on  the  facts  or  the  law  of  a 
given  case. 

This  pat  reference  to  the  judge's  shirt  absolutely 
unmanned  him  in  his  argument  to  the  jury,  and  Lin 
coln  won  the  case. 

One  of  Lincoln's  familiar  sayings  in  the  practice  of 
the  law  was  this: 

"If  I  can  free  this  case  from  technicalities  and  get 
it  properly  swung  to  the  jury,  I  will  win  it." 

As  a  rule  he  made  the  twelve  men  in  the  box  feel 
that  that  jury  was  composed  not  of  twelve  but  thirteen 
and  that  Lincoln,  not  the  judge,  was  the  thirteenth 
member. 

He  was  so  manifestly  fair,  not  affectedly  so,  but 
sincerely  so,  that  this  quality  of  his  mind  and  heart 
were  constantly  creeping  out.  He  was  always  "  Honest 
Abe." 

Leonard  Swett,  gives  the  following  account  of  Lin 
coln's  methods  in  the  trial  of  a  case,  whether  to  judge 
or  jury: 

"As  he  entered  the  trial  where  most  lawyers  would 


LINCOLN  THE  LAWYER  101 

object  he  would  say  he  ' reckoned'  it  would  be  fair  to 
let  this  in,  or  that;  and  sometimes,  when  his  adver 
sary  could  not  quite  prove  what  Lincoln  knew  to  be 
the  truth,  he  ' reckoned'  it  would  be  fair  to  admit  the 
truth  to  be  so-and-so.  When  he  did  object  to  the  court, 
and  when  he  heard  his  objections  answered,  he  would 
often  say,  'Well,  I  reckon  I  must  be  wrong.'  Now, 
about  the  time  he  had  practised  this  three-fourths 
through  the  case,  if  his  adversary  didn't  understand 
him,  he  would  wake  up  in  a  few  minutes  learning  that 
he  had  feared  the  Greeks  too  late,  and  find  himself 
beaten.  He  was  wise  as  a  serpent  in  the  trial  of  a  cause, 
but  I  have  had  too  many  scares  from  his  blows  to  certify 
that  he  was  harmless  as  a  dove.  When  the  whole  thing 
was  unravelled,  the  adversary  would  begin  to  see  that 
what  he  was  so  blandly  giving  away  was  simply  what 
he  couldn't  get  and  keep.  By  giving  away  six  points 
and  carrying  the  seventh  he  carried  his  case,  and  the 
whole  case  hanging  on  the  seventh,  he  traded  away 
everything  which  would  give  him  the  least  aid  in  carry 
ing  that.  Any  man  who  took  Lincoln  for  a  simple- 
minded  man  would  very  soon  wake  up  with  his  back 
in  a  ditch." 

As  before  suggested,  Lincoln  always  held  to  the  idea 
of  the  ultimate  justice  of  a  case.  What  was  right  and 
fair  under  all  the  facts  and  circumstances;  what  was 
the  just  judgment  that  the  court  ought  to  enter  ?  Any 
thing  that  conflicted  with  his  idea  of  justice,  even 
though  it  were  substantially  settled  law,  Lincoln  could 
not  help  but  regard  as  more  or  less  of  a  technical  rule. 
He  tried  to  induce  courts  and  juries  always  to  apply 
the  rules  of  law  in  such  a  way  as  not  to  defeat  jus 
tice. 

One  of  the  most  difficult  cases  he  had  of  this  char- 


102  THE    VOICE   OF  LINCOLN 

acter,  though  involving  a  comparatively  small  amount, 
is  related  by  Herndon*  as  follows: 

"In  the  spring  term  of  the  Tazewell  County  Court 
in  1847,  which  at  that  time  was  held  in  the  village  of 
Tremont,  I  was  detained  as  a  witness  an  entire  week. 
Lincoln  was  employed  in  several  suits,  and  among 
them  was  one  of  Case  vs.  Snow  Bros.  The  Snow  Bros., 
as  appeared  in  evidence  (who  were  both  minors),  had 
purchased  from  an  old  Mr.  Case  what  was  then  called 
a  '  prairie  team/  consisting  of  two  or  three  yoke  of 
oxen  and  prairie  plow,  giving  therefor  their  joint  note 
for  some  two  hundred  dollars;  but  when  pay-day  came 
refused  to  pay,  pleading  the  minor  act.  The  note  was 
placed  in  Lincoln's  hands  for  collection.  The  suit  was 
called  and  a  jury  impanelled.  The  Snow  Bros,  did 
not  deny  the  note,  but  pleaded  through  their  counsel 
that  they  were  minors,  and  that  Mr.  Case  knew  they 
were  at  the  time  of  the  contract  and  conveyance.  All 
this  was  admitted  by  Mr.  Lincoln,  with  his  peculiar 
phrase,  'Yes,  gentlemen,  I  reckon  that's  so.'  The 
minor  act  was  read  and  its  validity  admitted  in  the 
same  manner.  The  counsel  of  the  defendants  were 
permitted  without  question  to  state  all  these  things 
to  the  jury,  and  to  show  by  the  statute  that  these 
minors  could  not  be  held  responsible  for  their  con 
tract.  By  this  time  you  may  well  suppose  that  I  began 
to  be  uneasy.  'What !'  thought  I,  'this  good  old  man, 
who  confided  in  these  boys  to  be  wronged  in  this  way, 
and  even  his  counsel,  Mr.  Lincoln,  to  submit  in  silence  ! ; 
I  looked  at  the  court,  Judge  Treat,  but  could  read 
nothing  in  his  calm  and  dignified  demeanor.  Just 
then,  Mr.  Lincoln  slowly  got  up,  and  in  his  strange, 
half-erect  attitude  and  clear,  quiet  accent  began: 

*  Vol.  II,  page  327. 


LINCOLN  THE   LAWYER  103 

'Gentlemen  of  the  Jury,  are  you  willing  to  allow  these 
boys  to  begin  life  with  this  shame  and  disgrace  attached 
to  their  character?  If  you  are,  I  am  not.  The  best 
judge  of  human  character  that  ever  wrote  has  left 
these  immortal  words  for  all  of  us  to  ponder: 

"  'Good  name  in  man  or  woman,  dear  my  lord, 
Is  the  immediate  jewel  of  their  souls: 
Who  steals  my  purse  steals  trash:  'tis  something,  nothing; 
'Twas  mine,  'tis  his,  and  has  been  slave  to  thousands; 
But  he  that  filches  from  me  my  good  name 
Robs  me  of  that  which  not  enriches  him 
And  makes  me  poor  indeed.' 

"Then  rising  to  his  full  height,  and  looking  upon 
the  defendants  with  the  compassion  of  a  brother,  his 
long  right  arm  extended  toward  the  opposing  counsel, 
he  continued:  l Gentlemen  of  the  jury,  these  poor 
innocent  boys  would  never  have  attempted  this  low 
villany  had  it  not  been  for  the  advice  of  these  lawyers/ 
Then  for  a  few  minutes  he  showed  how  even  the  noble 
science  of  law  may  be  prostituted.  With  a  scathing 
rebuke  to  those  who  thus  belittle  their  profession,  he 
concluded:  'And  now,  gentlemen,  you  have  it  in  your 
power  to  set  these  boys  right  before  the  world.'  He 
pleaded  for  the  young  men  only;  I  think  he  did  not 
mention  his  client's  name.  The  jury,  without  leaving 
their  seats,  decided  that  the  defendants  must  pay  the 
debt;  and  the  latter,  after  hearing  Lincoln,  were  as 
willing  to  pay  it  as  the  jury  were  determined  they 
should.  I  think  the  entire  argument  lasted  not 
above  five  minutes." 

One  of  the  cases  that  contributed  most  to  Mr.  Lin 
coln's  reputation  among  the  people  of  Illinois  was 
known  as  the  " Armstrong"  case.  It  will  be  remem- 


104  THE  VOICE   OF  LINCOLN 

bered  that  upon  Lincoln's  going  to  New  Salem,  when 
twenty-two  years  of  age,  he  soon  came  in  contact  with 
the  Clary's  Grove  boys,  whose  leader  was  Jack  Arm 
strong.  They  were  the  terror  of  that  neighborhood. 
Later,  however,  they  became  very  intimate  friends. 
While  Lincoln  was  not  of  them  in  habits,  they  some 
how  or  other  felt  that  he  " belonged"  at  least  as  their 
idol,  and  Hannah  Armstrong,  the  wife  of  Jack,  furnished 
Abraham  Lincoln  many  a  meal  and  many  a  bed  when 
he  was  sorely  in  need.  She  learned  to  love  him  also 
and  Lincoln  learned  to  love  her. 

Years  passed  by  and  her  son,  Duff  Armstrong,  was  in 
dicted  for  murder.  Much  as  Lincoln  disliked  defenses 
in  criminal  cases,  he  could  not  deny  the  pleadings  of 
Duff  Armstrong's  now  widowed  mother,  to  whom  he 
felt  under  the  greatest  obligations. 

The  man,  Norris,  charged  as  the  accomplice  of  Duff 
Armstrong,  had  already  been  convicted,  and  the  evi 
dence  of  that  case  disclosed  very  much  incriminating 
evidence  against  Hannah  Armstrong's  son. 

Mr.  Lincoln's  first  effort,  as  it  is  of  every  capable, 
skilled  lawyer,  was  to  get  the  right  kind  of  jury.  The 
twelve  men  in  the  box  were  all  comparatively  young 
men,  as  Duff  Armstrong  was  a  young  man.  The  ex 
amination  of  the  State's  witnesses  was  most  carefully 
and  cautiously  conducted. 

He  never  made  the  mistake  in  cross-examination 
that  was  once  made  by  an  overzealous  counsel  in  what 
has  become  known  as  the  "ear  case."  It  is  not  irrele 
vant  here. 

A  man  was  being  tried  in  a  far  Western  State  on  a 
charge  of  mayhem.  The  particular  charge  was  that 
he  bit  off  the  prosecuting  witness's  ear  and  that  in  a 
drunken  brawl. 


LINCOLN   THE   LAWYER  105 

At  the  time  of  the  fight  the  witnesses  for  the  State 
were  so  drunk  that  they  could  scarcely  recollect  the 
circumstances  of  the  affair,  and  the  prosecutor  was 
forced  to  rely  on  one  sober  witness,  who  was  exceed 
ingly  friendly  to  the  defendant,  but  also,  it  must  be 
said  to  his  credit,  he  was  not  unfriendly  to  the  truth. 
After  putting  a  number  of  questions  to  the  principal 
witness  for  the  State,  the  answers  to  which  were  either 
indifferent  or  unsatisfactory,  sufficient  of  the  friendli 
ness  of  the  witness  for  the  accused  was  elicited  to 
secure  from  the  court  permission  to  put  direct  or  lead 
ing  questions  to  the  witness. 

UQ.  Now,  you  say,  Mr.  Jones,  that  you  did  not  see 
the  defendant  bite  off  the  ear  of  the  prosecuting  wit 
ness,  Brown? 

"A.     No,  sir. 

"Q.  And  do  you  mean  to  say  that  you  did  not  see 
him  biting  at  his  ear? 

"A.     No,  sir." 

The  prosecutor  practically  threw  up  his  hands.  He 
had  failed  to  make  a  case,  and  passed  the  witness  to 
the  other  side  for  cross-examination. 

Any  skilled  and  experienced  counsel  would  simply 
have  answered:  "We  have  no  cross-examination." 
But  the  turn  of  events  had  so  taken  everybody  off  his 
feet  that  counsel  for  the  defendant  in  his  zeal  said: 
"Just  a  question  or  two." 

"Q.  Now,  I  understand  you  to  say  you  did  not  see 
the  defendant  biting  off  Mr.  Brown's  ear? 

"A.     No. 

"Q.     You  did  not  see  him  biting  at  his  ear? 

"A.     No,  sir. 

"Q.  You  did  not  see  anything  that  indicated  that 
he  had  bitten  off  his  ear? 


106  THE  VOICE   OF  LINCOLN 

"A.     Well,  I  would  not  want  to  say  that. 

"Q.     Well,  what  did  you  see? 

"A.     Well,  I  saw  the  defendant  spit  out  an  ear." 

Lincoln  never  made  such  mistakes  in  cross-examina 
tion.  He  asked  the  right  question  at  the  right  time 
and  in  the  right  way.  He  never  pushed  a  witness  too 
far,  nor  ever  put  himself  in  a  hostile  attitude  to  the 
witness,  unless  he  was  sure  of  his  ground,  sure  that  he 
would  be  able  successfully  to  impeach  him  later. 

The  case  had  gone  well  for  Mr.  Lincoln  until  the 
star  witness  for  the  State  was  put  upon  the  stand. 
His  name  was  Allen.  All  eyes  were  turned  to  hear 
Allen's  story,  because  he  was  the  only  witness  that 
claimed  to  have  seen  the  fatal  blow  struck  at  a  dis 
tance  of  about  one  hundred  and  fifty  feet  from  where 
the  fatal  assault  took  place.  Allen  testified  that  the 
assault  took  place  at  about  eleven  o'clock  in  the  night 
time  and  that  he  saw  Armstrong  strike  the  deceased, 
Metzker,  with  a  sling-shot.  Mr.  Lincoln  asked  him 
as  to  how  he  could  see  that  distance  at  that  time  of 
night.  Allen  replied  at  once:  "By  the  light  of  the 
moon." 

Lincoln  was  prepared  to  meet  this  testimony,  and, 
therefore,  he  gave  the  witness,  Allen,  all  possible  rope 
to  repeat  and  to  emphasize  the  fact  of  how  clearly  he 
had  seen  this  blow  struck,  so  that  there  was  no  possible 
chance  of  retracting  it  or  qualifying  it.  Allen  made 
the  moon  to  shine  that  night  like  the  noonday  sun. 
Then  Lincoln  introduced  the  almanac  of  that  year,  a 
silent  witness,  but  a  thoroughly  credible  one. 

The  almanac  showed  that  the  moon  had  just  com 
pleted  its  first  quarter  before  midnight  and  that  at 
the  hour  named  by  this  star  witness  the  moon  was 
so  near  its  setting  that  it  was  impossible  for  it  to  have 


LINCOLN  THE   LAWYER  107 

furnished  any  light  by  which  Allen  could  have  seen 
Armstrong  strike  the  blow.  Allen  had  been  entirely 
discredited.  The  verdict  was  Lincoln's. 

One  or  two  biographers  have  endeavored  to  discredit 
Mr.  Lincoln's  professional  honor  in  this  case  by  charg 
ing  that  he  used  an  old  almanac  and  not  the  one  of 
1857,  the  year  of  the  murder. 

Again  the  almanac  is  its  best  witness.  Numerous 
biographers  have  answered  that  charge  by  showing 
that  the  original  account  of  the  transaction,  as  re 
ported  by  Lincoln,  is  absolutely  correct,  that  the 
almanac  of  1857  did  support  every  claim  made  by 
Lincoln  in  behalf  of  Armstrong. 

But  more  than  that,  if  such  almanac  were  not  now 
available,  Lincoln's  whole  professional  career  brands 
the  other  story  as  a  lie,  and  if  it  had  even  been  possi 
ble  for  him  to  indulge  in  such  a  vicious  practice  to 
mislead  court  and  jury,  it  would  have  excited  such 
discussion  and  opposition  in  Illinois  in  that  day  as  to 
have  resulted  in  a  deserved  disbarment.  The  bar  of 
Illinois  in  that  day  was  of  too  high  standing  to  have 
suffered  such  an  imposition  upon  court  and  jury  to 
have  gone  either  undiscovered  or  unpunished. 

Considerable  discussion  has  arisen  by  Lincoln's  vari 
ous  biographers  touching  the  statement  made  as  to 
Lincoln's  methods  in  court  by  one  Judge  Treat,  who 
was  at  one  time  a  member  of  the  Supreme  Court  of 
Illinois. 

One  of  Lincoln's  biographers  gives  Judge  Treat  as 
authority  for  the  following  brief  argument  of  Lincoln 
before  the  Supreme  Court  of  Illinois: 

"This  is  the  first  case  I  ILincolnl  ever  have  had  in 
this  court,  and  I,  therefore,  examined  it  with  great 
care.  As  the  court  will  perceive  by  looking  at  the 


108  THE  VOICE  OF   LINCOLN 

abstract  of  the  record,  the  only  question  in  the  case  is 
one  of  authority.  I  have  not  been  able  to  find  any 
authority  to  sustain  my  side  of  the  case.  But  I  have 
found  several  cases  directly  in  point  on  the  other  side. 
I  will  now  give  these  authorities  to  the  court  and  then 
submit  the  case." 

Several  of  Lincoln's  biographers  deny  it  and  point 
to  the  fact  that  at  the  time  Lincoln  argued  his  first 
case  in  the  Supreme  Court  of  Illinois  Judge  Treat  was 
not  a  member  of  that  court.  They  say  not  only  that 
Lincoln  never  used  that  language,  but  that  it  would 
have  been  highly  improper  to  have  done  so. 

It  matters  not  whether  it  occurred  at  this  time  or 
some  other  time;  that  it  frequently  did  occur  is  just 
what  you  would  expect  from  a  lawyer  like  Lincoln. 

But  the  controversy  is  not  important  as  to  the  time 
when  it  occurred.  The  fact  of  the  matter  is  that  Lin 
coln  was  always  so  fair,  so  frank  with  the  court  that 
there  is  nothing  in  these  words  in  the  slightest  contra 
diction  to  his  uniform  attitude  and  conduct  in  the 
presence  of  a  court  of  justice. 

To  Lincoln  there  was  nothing  sacred  about  a  decided 
case,  except  its  weight  in  reason  and  justice,  and  if  the 
reason  and  justice  of  the  case  on  trial  was  upon  his 
side,  Lincoln  would  plainly  and  persuasively  present 
that  side,  notwithstanding  some  court  may  have  de 
cided  otherwise. 

A  case  of  more  than  usual  interest  was  one  in  which 
he  had  been  retained  to  render  certain  service  as  an 
attorney-at-law  in  some  taxation  suits  brought  by  the 
State  of  Illinois  against  the  Illinois  Central  Railroad. 
Upon  the  completion  of  that  litigation  Lincoln  ren 
dered  a  bill  to  the  railroad  company  for  two  thousand 
dollars.  The  bill  was  rejected. 


LINCOLN  THE   LAWYER  109 

Some  of  his  biographers  have  related,  with  no  show 
of  probability,  however,  that  the  rejection  was  made 
by  the  chief  engineer  of  that  company,  one  George 
B.  McClellan.  The  facts  are  all  against  this  conten 
tion.  The  bill,  however,  was  rejected.  Lincoln  felt 
much  hurt,  and  conferred  with  his  associates  at  the 
bar.  They  rather  severely  criticised  Lincoln,  not  be 
cause  the  bill  was  too  large,  but  because  it  was  too 
little.  They  urged  that  the  bill  should  be  presented 
for  five  thousand  dollars,  which  was  done.  Again  the 
bill  was  rejected,  suit  was  brought  and  judgment  finally 
taken  in  favor  of  Lincoln.  Lincoln  collected  the  money 
upon  the  judgment,  brought  it  to  the  office,  divided 
it  without  any  book  entry,  carefully  wrapped  up  two 
thousand  five  hundred  dollars,  and  labelled  it  "  Hern- 
don's  half." 

Some  of  his  biographers  have  urged  that  the  suit 
against  the  Illinois  Central  Railroad  was  entirely 
friendly.  Without  any  facts  to  support  this  claim, 
save  that  Lincoln  was  subsequently  retained  by  the 
Illinois  Central  Railroad,  the  presumption  is  the  other 
way.  Men  who  are  willing  to  pay  claims  in  a  sub 
stantial  amount  do  not  ordinarily  submit  to  a  suit  to 
collect  them. 

No  doubt  Lincoln's  great  ability  in  the  case  was, 
in  itself,  sufficient  to  urge  the  advisability  upon  some 
of  the  officers  of  the  railroad  company  for  future 
employment,  wholly  independent  of  the  issue  in  the 
five-thousand-dollar  case. 

Another  case  that  attracted  a  great  deal  of  interest, 
and  has  been  given  much  space  in  his  various  biogra 
phies  was  the  " Manny"  or  "McCormick"  case,  as  it 
is  sometimes  known. 

So  many  different  accounts  have  been  given  con- 


110  THE  VOICE  OF  LINCOLN 

cerning  this  case  that  they  are  irreconcilable,  save  in 
one  particular,  and  that  is  that  Mr.  Lincoln  was  very 
rudely  treated  by  associate  counsel  in  the  case. 

The  case  was  one  involving  a  patent  brought  by 
the  McCormick  Company  against  one  Manny  on  the 
charge  of  infringement  of  patents  in  the  United  States 
Court  at  Cincinnati,  and  was  heard  there  during  the 
fall  term  of  1855. 

For  plaintiff  there  appeared  a  distinguished  lawyer 
from  Baltimore,  Reverdy  Johnson,  and  a  Mr.  Dicker- 
son,  from  Philadelphia,  an  expert  patent  lawyer. 

Mr.  George  Harding  was  the  expert  patent  lawyer 
from  Philadelphia  for  the  defendant,  and  Lincoln  had 
been  retained  by  one  of  the  defendants,  Mr.  Emerson, 
of  Rockford,  Illinois,  to  match  as  a  lawyer  of  general 
and  successful  practice  in  the  trial  of  cases  the  dis 
tinguished  and  skilled  Johnson  from  Baltimore. 

When  Lincoln  arrived  at  Cincinnati  he  learned  that 
other  parties  interested  with  the  defendant  had  also 
employed  Mr.  Edwin  M.  Stanton,  formerly  of  Steuben- 
ville,  Ohio,  but  now  of  Pittsburg,  Pennsylvania,  a 
college-bred  man,  and  a  lawyer  of  large  ability  and 
successful  experience. 

Up  to  the  time  of  their  meeting  at  Cincinnati  Mr. 
Stanton  did  not  know  of  Mr.  Lincoln  having  been 
retained  in  behalf  of  the  defendant,  and  Lincoln  evi 
dently  did  not  know  that  Mr.  Stanton  had  been  re 
tained  likewise  in  behalf  of  the  defendant. 

Upon  meeting  Lincoln,  it  is  said  that  Stanton  in 
quired:  "  Where  did  this  long-legged,  long-armed 
person  come  from  and  who  is  it?"  Other  things  were 
said  no  doubt,  some  of  them  not  fit  for  public  record. 

At  all  events,  Lincoln  did  not  participate  in  the 
trial.  He  did  not  assist  in  the  examination  of  the  wit- 


LINCOLN  THE   LAWYER  111 

nesses.  He  did  not  make  any  argument  to  the  court, 
nor  file  any  brief  in  the  case,  though  he  had  been  re 
tained  by  one  of  the  defendants  for  that  purpose. 

Harding  made  an  argument  as  an  expert  patent 
lawyer,  which  was  supplemented  by  a  very  able  argu 
ment  by  Stanton.  Lincoln,  it  is  said,  after  being 
crowded  out  of  the  case,  tendered  Harding  and  Stanton 
a  brief  that  he  had  prepared,  which  they  cordially 
consigned  to  the  waste-basket  without  examining  it. 

As  a  further  evidence  of  their  lack  of  cordiality  and 
general  agreeableness  toward  Lincoln,  it  should  be 
said  with  entire  truth  that  Judge  McLean  gave  a  little 
dinner,  during  the  early  part  of  the  trial,  in  which  all 
the  counsel  in  the  case  were  present  as  honored  guests. 
Lincoln,  however,  was  not  present,  and  neither  was  he 
invited  to  be  present. 

Lincoln  remained  in  Cincinnati  a  few  days,  and 
then  went  home  to  Springfield  much  depressed  and 
deeply  grieved  over  the  treatment  accorded  him  by 
counsel  in  that  case.  Stanton  had  brutally  kicked 
him  out  in  a  manner  that  could  not  be  misunderstood 
by  Lincoln.  Stanton  was  as  big  in  mind  as  he  was 
bad  in  manners,  and  his  conduct  toward  Lincoln  and 
the  public  then  and  later,  as  we  shall  see,  furnish  abun 
dant  evidence  of  his  dominating  and  haughty  char 
acteristics. 

Lincoln  had  one  marked  peculiarity  that  deserves 
mention  here,  and  that  is,  that  he  rarely  detailed  his 
personal  or  professional  grievances  to  his  friends,  and 
no  fact  is  better  established  than  that  he  never  had 
any  intimates.  He  never  confided  the  secrets,  espe 
cially  the  unpleasant  and  disagreeable  secrets  of  his 
personal,  professional,  or  political  life  to  any  other 
living  soul.  So  that  we  have  little  account  of  what 


112  THE  VOICE  OF  LINCOLN 

Lincoln  himself  said  or  thought  of  Stanton's  treat 
ment  of  him  in  this  case  at  Cincinnati. 

Herndon  says: 

"  Lincoln  felt  that  Stanton  had  not  only  been  very 
discourteous  to  him,  but  had  purposely  ignored  him 
in  the  case  and  that  he  had  received  rather  rude,  if  not 
unkind,  treatment  from  all  hands.  Stanton  in  his 
brusque  and  abrupt  way,  it  is  said,  described  him  as 
'a  long,  lank  creature  from  Illinois,  wearing  a  dirty 
linen  duster  for  a  coat,  on  the  back  of  which  the  per 
spiration  had  splotched  wide  stains  that  resembled  a 
map  of  the  continent/  ' 

We  may  feel  sure  from  what  we  know  of  Lin 
coln  personally  that  if  he  (Lincoln)  felt  that  Stanton 
had  been  " discourteous,"  "had  purposely  ignored  him," 
"had  been  rude"  that  Stanton,  as  a  matter  of  fact, 
had  been  doubly  so. 

When  we  lawyers  realize  the  courtesy  due  from  one 
counsel  to  another,  no  matter  what  our  personal  feel 
ing  may  be,  Stanton's  treatment  of  Lincoln  seems  not 
only  outrageous,  but  almost  unpardonable. 

Herndon  himself  further  says  that  Lincoln  once 
said  to  him  that  he  had  been  "roughly  handled  by 
that  man  Stanton,"  and  that  he  had  overheard  Stanton 
saying:  "Where  did  that  long-armed  creature  come 
from  and  what  can  he  expect  to  do  in  this  case?" 

Stanton's  relations  to  Lincoln  in  this  case  are  given 
at  length  because  Lincoln  and  Stanton  will  have  much 
to  do  with  each  other  in  another  chapter. 


CHAPTER  IX 

LINCOLN  THE  LAWYER 

(CONTINUED) 

WHILE  a  partner  of  Herndon  in  1858,  Lincoln  made 
the  following  notes  for  an  argument  to  the  court: 

"  Legislation  and  adjudication  must  follow  and  con 
form  to  the  progress  of  society. 

"The  progress  of  society  now  begins  to  produce 
cases  of  the  transfer  for  debts  of  the  entire  property 
of  railroad  corporations;  and  to  enable  transferees  to 
use  and  enjoy  the  transferred  property  legislation  and 
adjudication  begin  to  be  necessary. 

"  Shall  this  class  of  legislation  just  now  beginning 
with  us  be  general  or  special? 

"  Section  Ten  of  our  Constitution  requires  that  it 
should  be  general,  if  possible.  (Read  the  Section.) 

"  Special  legislation  always  trenches  upon  the  judi 
cial  department;  and  in  so  far  violates  Section  Two  of 
the  Constitution.  (Read  it.) 

"  Just  reasoning — policy — is  in  favor  of  general  legis 
lation — else  the  legislature  will  be  loaded  down  with 
the  investigation  of  small  cases — a  work  which  the 
courts  ought  to  perform,  and  can  perform  much  more 
perfectly.  How  can  the  Legislature  rightly  decide  the 
facts  between  P.  &  H.  and  S.  C.  &  Co.  ? 

"It  is  said  that  under  a  general  law,  whenever  a 
R.  R.  Co.  gets  tired  of  its  debts,  it  may  transfer  fraudu 
lently  to  get  rid  of  them.  So  they  may — so  may  indi 
viduals;  and  which — the  Legislature  or  the  courts — is 
best  suited  to  try  the  question  of  fraud  in  either  case? 

113 


114  THE  VOICE   OF   LINCOLN 

"It  is  said,  if  a  purchaser  have  acquired  legal  rights, 
let  him  not  be  robbed  of  them,  but  if  he  needs  legisla 
tion  let  him  submit  to  just  terms  to  obtain  it. 

"Let  him,  say  we,  have  general  law  in  advance 
(guarded  in  every  possible  way  against  fraud),  so  that, 
when  he  acquires  a  legal  right,  he  will  have  no  occasion 
to  wait  for  additional  legislation;  and  if  he  has  prac 
tised  fraud  let  the  courts  so  decide." 

The  student  will  note  the  orderly  arrangement  of 
this  argument,  the  logical  steps  in  which  the  notes 
are  made,  how  the  legal  and  the  ethical  argument  is 
presented  together  so  that  each  re-enforces  the  other. 

One  of  the  noted  cases  that  Lincoln  had  for  trial 
was  known  as  the  Wright  case.  A  widow  had  been 
defrauded  of  a  large  part  of  her  pension  by  a  pen 
sion  agent  who  had  secured  for  her  an  allowance 
of  $800  from  the  government,  for  which  he  had 
charged  her  the  outrageous  fee  of  $400.  The  widow 
was  old,  crippled,  and  needy.  She  sought  Lincoln 
to  retain  him  to  recover  the  $400,  less  a  reasonable 
fee. 

Lincoln's  notes  for  the  argument  of  this  case  are  as 
follows : 

"No  contract. — Not  professional  services. — Unrea 
sonable  charge. — Money  retained  by  Deft  not  given 
by  Pl'ff. — Revolutionary  War. — Describe  Valley  Forge 
privations. — Ice. — Soldier's  bleeding  feet. — Pl'ff's  hus 
band. — Soldier  leaving  home  for  army. — Skin  Deft. — 
Close." 

Herndon's  account  of  it  is  very  interesting,  includ 
ing  a  portion  of  Lincoln's  argument.  He  says: 

"As  he  reached  that  point  in  his  speech  wherein  he 
narrated  the  hardened  action  of  the  defendant  in 
fleecing  the  old  woman  of  her  pension  his  eyes  flashed, 


LINCOLN  THE   LAWYER  115 

and  throwing  aside  his  handkerchief,  which  he  held  in 
his  right  hand,  he  fairly  launched  into  him.  His 
speech  for  the  next  five  or  ten  minutes  justified  the 
declaration  of  Davis,  that  he  was  i  hurtful  in  denun 
ciation  and  merciless  in  castigation.'  There  was  no 
rule  of  court  to  restrain  him  in  his  argument,  and  I 
never,  either  on  the  stump  or  on  other  occasions  in 
court,  saw  him  so  wrought  up.  Before  he  closed,  he 
drew  an  ideal  picture  of  the  plaintiff's  husband,  the 
deceased  soldier,  parting  with  his  wife  at  the  threshold 
of  their  home,  and  kissing  their  little  babe  in  the 
cradle,  as  he  started  for  the  war.  'Time  rolls  by/  he 
said  in  conclusion;  'the  heroes  of  '76  have  passed  away 
and  are  encamped  on  the  other  shore.  The  soldier 
has  gone  to  rest,  and  now,  crippled,  blinded,  and 
broken,  his  widow  comes  to  you  and  to  me,  gentlemen 
of  the  jury,  to  right  her  wrongs.  She  was  not  always 
thus.  She  was  once  a  beautiful  young  woman.  Her 
step  was  as  elastic,  her  face  as  fair,  and  her  voice  as 
sweet  as  any  that  rang  in  the  mountains  of  old  Virginia. 
But  now  she  is  poor  and  defenceless.  Out  here  on  the 
prairies  of  Illinois,  many  hundreds  of  miles  away  from 
the  scenes  of  her  childhood,  she  appeals  to  us,  who 
enjoy  the  privileges  achieved  for  us  by  the  patriots  of 
the  Revolution,  for  our  sympathetic  aid  and  manly 
protection.  All  I  ask  is,  shall  we  befriend  her  ? '  The 
speech  made  the  desired  impression  on  the  jury.  Half 
of  them  were  in  tears,  while  the  defendant  sat  in  the 
court  room,  drawn  up  and  writhing  under  the  fire  of 
Lincoln's  fierce  invective.  .  .  .  When  the  judgment 
was  paid  we  remitted  the  proceeds  to  her  and  made  no 
charge  for  our  services." 

When  a  man  is  mad,  he  is  mad  clear  through,  and 
that  was  true  of  Lincoln  in  this  case.     He  hated  a 


116  THE  VOICE  OF  LINCOLN 

sham  and  a  counterfeit,  whether  it  be  in  a  person  or 
a  policy. 

But  when  the  widow  was  in  the  wrong  he  was  equally 
frank  to  tell  her  so  and  refuse  her  case. 

An  instance  is  related  wherein  Lincoln  was  once 
asked  to  examine  the  title  to  a  piece  of  valuable 
land  owned  by  a  widow.  Lincoln  himself  surveyed 
the  land  and  carefully  examined  its  title,  and  the  liens 
thereon.  After  taking  his  survey  and  the  records  into 
full  consideration,  together  with  the  facts  that  the 
widow  was  able  to  give  him,  he  told  her  frankly  that 
she  ought  to  pay  a  certain  sum  to  the  heirs  of  a  former 
grantor.  To  this  the  widow  entered  strenuous  objec 
tion.  Lincoln,  however,  told  her  that  unless  she  did 
so  he  would  drop  the  case.  Finally,  with  great  reluc 
tance,  she  consented,  paid  the  amount,  and  Lincoln 
himself  distributed  it  to  the  various  heirs. 

After  all,  it  appears  that  each  case  had  to  stand  upon 
its  own  bottom.  It  had  to  square  with  justice,  and, 
unless  his  conscience  approved,  he  refused  the  retainer. 

Another  instance  well  illustrates  the  ethics  of  Lin 
coln  in  the  practice  of  the  law,  and  as  well  the  differ 
ence  between  him  and  Herndon  in  their  ethical  stand 
ards.  A  suit  had  been  brought  against  one  of  their 
clients  involving  a  large  sum  of  money.  For  some 
reason  or  other  Lincoln  and  Herndon  were  not  ready 
for  trial.  Herndon,  having  charge  of  the  case,  did  all 
that  he  could  to  postpone  the  trial.  He  says,  concern 
ing  the  case:* 

"We  dared  not  make  an  affidavit  for  continuance, 
founded  on  facts,  because  no  such  pertinent  and  mate 
rial  facts  as  the  law  contemplated  existed.  Our  case 
for  the  time  seemed  hopeless.  One  morning,  however,  I 

*  Vol.  I,  page  326. 


LINCOLN  THE   LAWYER  117 

accidentally  overheard  a  remark  from  Stuart  indicating 
his  fear  lest  a  certain  fact  should  happen  to  come  into 
our  possession.  I  felt  some  relief,  and  at  once  drew 
up  a  fictitious  plea,  averring  as  best  I  could  the  sub 
stance  of  the  doubts  I  knew  existed  in  Stuart's  mind. 
The  plea  was  as  skilfully  drawn  as  I  knew  how,  and 
was  framed  as  if  we  had  the  evidence  to  sustain  it. 
The  whole  thing  was  a  sham,  but  so  constructed  as  to 
work  the  desired  continuance,  because  I  knew  that 
Stuart  and  Edwards  believed  the  facts  were  as  I 
pleaded  them.  This  was  done  in  the  absence  and 
without  the  knowledge  of  Lincoln.  The  plea  could 
not  be  demurred  to,  and  the  opposing  counsel  dared 
not  take  the  issue  on  it.  It  perplexed  them  sorely. 
At  length,  before  further  steps  were  taken,  Lincoln 
came  into  court.  He  looked  carefully  over  all  the 
papers  in  the  case,  as  was  his  custom,  and  seeing  my 
ingenious  subterfuge  asked,  'Is  this  seventh  plea  a 
good  one?'  Proud  of  the  exhibition  of  my  skill  I 
answered  that  it  was.  'But/  he  inquired,  incredu 
lously,  'is  it  founded  on  fact?'  I  was  obliged  to  re 
spond  in  the  negative,  at  the  same  time  following  up 
my  answer  with  an  explanation  of  what  I  had  over 
heard  Stuart  intimate,  and  of  how  these  alleged  facts 
could  be  called  facts  if  a  certain  construction  were  put 
upon  them.  I  insisted  that  our  position  was  justifiable, 
and  that  our  client  must  have  time  or  be  ruined.  I 
could  see  at  once  it  failed  to  strike  Lincoln  as  just 
right.  He  scratched  his  head  thoughtfully  and  asked, 
'Hadn't  we  better  withdraw  that  plea?  You  know 
it's  a  sham,  and  a  sham  is  very  often  but  another  name 
for  a  lie.  Don't  let  it  go  on  record.  The  cursed  thing 
may  come  staring  us  in  the  face  long  after  this  suit  has 
been  forgotten.'  The  plea  was  withdrawn.  By  some 


118  THE  VOICE  OF  LINCOLN 

agency — not  our  own — the  case  was  continued  and  our 
client's  interests  were  saved. " 

Herndon  entirely  misconceives  Mr.  Lincoln's  reason 
for  having  the  sham  plea  withdrawn,  on  "  account  of 
the  record."  It  was  not  on  "  account  of  the  record," 
but  on  account  of  the  right  of  the  thing.  He  was  so 
keen  for  justice  that  he  could  not  knowingly  do  any 
thing  unjust;  neither  would  he  permit  it  to  be  done. 

I  may  have  devoted  more  time  than  some  would 
think  necessary  to  relating  particular  incidents  and 
instances  of  his  practice,  but  I  am  persuaded  that  Lin 
coln  was  nature's  great  jurist,  and,  therefore,  his  ideas, 
as  well  as  ideals  of  justice,  as  they  were  expressed  and 
experienced  in  his  every-day  life,  as  the  lawyer,  are 
of  vital  interest  to  any  student  of  Lincoln,  and  should 
be  of  special  interest  to  lawyers  who  believe  in  a  higher 
and  nobler  code  of  ethics  for  the  profession. 

Indeed,  it  is  evidence  of  the  fact  that  he  was  a  great 
natural  jurist,  that  whenever  the  judge  on  the  circuit 
was  absent  for  any  reason,  the  one  lawyer,  above  all 
others,  that  was  unanimously  chosen  to  sit  instead  of 
the  absent  judge  and  proceed  with  the  trial  of  causes 
that  day  assigned,  was  Lincoln. 

Some  of  his  rules  of  practice  are  worthy  of  further 
note,  not  only  as  a  matter  of  interest  in  illustrating 
his  character,  but  also  of  emulation  in  the  profession. 

"In  law  it  is  good  policy  never  to  plead  what  you 
need  not,  lest  you  oblige  yourself  to  prove  what  you 
cannot." 

Once  he  said  to  Herndon: 

"  Billy,  don't  shoot  too  high — aim  lower  and  the 
common  people  will  understand  you.  They  are  the 
ones  you  want  to  reach — at  least  they  are  the  ones 
you  ought  to  reach.  The  educated  and  refined  people 


LINCOLN  THE   LAWYER  119 

will  understand  you  anyway.  If  you  aim  too  high 
your  ideas  will  go  over  the  heads  of  the  masses  and 
only  hit  those  who  need  no  hitting." 

Herndon  overstates  nothing  in  Lincoln's  favor  when 
he  says: 

"  Lincoln  could  look  a  long  distance  ahead  and  cal 
culate  the  triumph  of  right.  With  him  justice  and 
truth  were  paramount.  If  to  him  a  thing  seemed  un 
true  he  could  not  in  his  nature  simulate  truth.  His 
retention  by  a  man  to  defend  a  lawsuit  did  not  prevent 
him  from  throwing  it  up  in  its  most  critical  stage  if 
he  believed  he  was  espousing  an  unjust  cause.  This 
extreme  conscientiousness  and  disregard  of  the  alleged 
sacredness  of  the  professional  cloak  robbed  him  of 
much  so-called  success  at  the  bar." 

A  higher  tribute  no  man  can  pay  another. 

The  query  comes  to  many  of  us,  can  a  man  with 
such  high  standards  of  personal  integrity  and  profes 
sional  honor  be  successful  in  the  practice  of  the  law? 
If  large  fees  are  the  index  of  professional  success,  if 
large  corporation  retainers  are  the  index  of  profes 
sional  success,  if  fifty  or  one  hundred  thousand  dollars 
annual  income  be  the  index  of  professional  success, 
then  Abraham  Lincoln  was  not  a  successful  lawyer. 

His  annual  fees  rarely  aggregated  more  than  two 
or  three  thousand  dollars,  and  he  was  by  all  stand 
ards  counted  a  poor  man.  He  says  something  on 
this  subject  himself  when  in  New  York  to  deliver  the 
Cooper  Union  speech.  The  day  before  he  met  an  old 
friend  from  Springfield  who  had  recently  come  to  New 
York  and  engaged  in  business.  The  talk  on  Broadway 
was  substantially  as  follows.  Said  Mr.  Lincoln: 

"How  have  you  been  getting  along  since  leaving 
the  West?" 


120  THE  VOICE   OF   LINCOLN 

"I  have  made  $100,000  and  lost  all,"  was  the  reply. 

Then  his  friend  said: 

"How  is  it  with  you,  Mr.  Lincoln?" 

"Oh,  very  well,"  said  he,  "I  have  the  cottage  at 
Springfield  and  about  $8,000  in  money.  If  they  make 
me  Vice  President  with  Seward,  as  some  say  they  will, 
I  hope  I  shall  be  able  to  increase  it  to  $20,000;  and 
that  is  as  much  as  any  man  ought  to  want." 

If,  however,  painstaking,  efficient,  successful  prac 
tice  for  a  large  clientage  of  every  kind  and  nature  in 
the  nisi  prius  courts,  as  well  as  in  the  Supreme  Court 
of  his  State,  and  also  a  number  of  cases  in  the  Federal 
Courts,  are  any  exponent  of  a  lawyer's  success  at  the 
bar,  then  Abraham  Lincoln  must  be  acknowledged 
as  one  of  the  first  and  biggest  lawyers  of  Illinois. 

From  the  time  he  returned  from  his  service  in  Con 
gress,  in  1849,  until  his  nomination  for  the  presidency, 
there  is  no  doubting  that  he  had  more  cases  during 
those  eleven  years  in  the  Supreme  Court  of  Illinois 
than  any  other  lawyer  in  the  State. 

From  the  commencement  of  his  practice  to  its  close, 
the  record  shows  that  he  had  more  than  one  hundred 
and  seventy-five  cases  in  the  Supreme  Court  of  Il 
linois,  a  record  surpassed  by  few  men,  if  any,  in  that 
State  or  any  other  in  that  day. 

What  his  fellow  lawyers  said  of  him  after  his  death 
will  illustrate  many  sides  of  his  personal  and  profes 
sional  character. 

Shortly  after  Lincoln's  death  in  1865,  the  Supreme 
Court  of  Illinois  heard  obituary  addresses  in  his  honor. 
On  that  occasion,  Judge  Caton  said  in  presenting  the 
resolutions : 

"He  (Mr.  Lincoln)  understood  the  relations  of 
things,  and  hence  his  deductions  were  rarely  wrong, 


LINCOLN  THE   LAWYER  121 

from  any  given  state  of  facts.  So  he  applied  the  prin 
ciples  of  law  to  the  transactions  of  men  with  great  clear 
ness  and  precision.  He  was  a  close  reasoner.  He 
reasoned  by  analogy,  and  enforced  his  views  by  apt 
illustration.  His  mode  of  speaking  was  generally  of 
a  plain  and  unimpassioned  character,  and  yet  he  was 
the  author  of  some  of  the  most  beautiful  and  eloquent 
passages  in  our  language,  which,  if  collected,  would 
form  a  valuable  contribution  to  American  literature. 
The  most  punctilious  honor  ever  marked  his  profes 
sional  and  private  life." 

Judge  Breese,  responding  to  the  resolutions,  said: 

"For  my  single  self,  I  have  for  a  quarter  of  a  cen 
tury  regarded  Mr.  Lincoln  as  the  finest  lawyer  I  ever 
knew,  and  of  a  professional  bearing  so  high-toned  and 
honorable  as  justly,  and  without  derogating  from  the 
claims  of  others,  entitling  him  to  be  presented  to  the 
profession  as  a  model  well  worthy  of  the  closest  imita 
tion." 

Judge  Thomas  Drummond,  of  Chicago,  then  a 
member  of  the  Federal  Court  in  the  city,  upon  this 
same  occasion  said: 

"I  have  no  hesitation  in  saying  that  he  was  one  of 
the  ablest  lawyers  I  have  ever  known.  With  a  voice 
by  no  means  pleasant,  and,  indeed,  when  excited,  in 
its  shrill  tones,  sometimes  almost  disagreeable;  with 
out  any  of  the  personal  graces  of  the  orator;  without 
much  in  the  outward  man  indicating  superiority  of 
intellect;  without  great  quickness  of  perception — 
still,  his  mind  was  so  vigorous,  his  comprehension  so 
exact  and  clear,  and  his  judgment  so  sure,  that  he 
easily  mastered  the  intricacies  of  his  profession,  and 
became  one  of  the  ablest  reasoners  and  most  impres 
sive  speakers  at  our  bar.  With  a  probity  of  character 


122  THE  VOICE  OF  LINCOLN 

known  of  all,  with  an  intuitive  insight  into  the  human 
heart,  with  a  clearness  of  statement  which  was  itself 
an  argument,  with  uncommon  power  and  felicity  of 
illustration, — often,  it  is  true,  of  a  plain  and  homely 
kind, — and  with  that  sincerity  and  earnestness  of 
manner  which  carried  conviction,  he  was,  perhaps, 
one  of  the  most  successful  jury  lawyers  we  have  ever 
had  in  the  state.  He  always  tried  a  case  fairly  and 
honestly.  He  never  intentionally  misrepresented  the 
evidence  of  a  witness  or  the  argument  of  an  opponent. 
He  met  both  squarely,  and,  if  he  could  not  explain  the 
one  or  answer  the  other ',  substantially  admitted  it.  He 
never  misstated  the  law  according  to  his  own  intelligent 
view  of  it." 

Judge  David  Davis,  then  of  the  Supreme  Court  of 
the  United  States,  delivered  a  eulogy  on  Lincoln  as  a 
lawyer  at  Indianapolis,  in  which  he  said: 

"In  all  the  elements  that  constitute  the  great  law 
yer,  he  (Mr.  Lincoln)  had  few  equals.  He  was  great 
both  at  Nisi  Prius  and  before  an  appellate  tribunal. 
He  seized  the  strong  points  of  a  case,  and  presented 
them  with  clearness  and  great  compactness.  A  vein 
of  humor  never  deserted  him,  and  he  was  always  able 
to  chain  the  attention  of  court  and  jury  when  the 
cause  was  the  most  uninteresting,  by  the  appropriate 
ness  of  his  anecdotes." 

Arnold,  one  of  his  biographers,  and  also  a  fellow 
lawyer,  at  Indianapolis,  in  speaking  of  both  Douglas 
and  Lincoln,  said: 

"Both  were  strong  jury  lawyers.  Lincoln  was,  on 
the  whole,  the  strongest  we  ever  had  in  Illinois.  Both 
were  distinguished  for  their  ability  in  seizing  and  bring 
ing  out  distinctly  and  clearly  the  real  points  in  a  case. 
Both  were  happy  in  the  examination  of  witnesses,  but 


LINCOLN  THE   LAWYER  123 

I  think  Lincoln  was  the  stronger  of  the  two  in  cross- 
examination." 

Lincoln  lived  the  lawyer  and  loved  the  law,  but  more 
than  all  else  he  lived  and  loved  justice. 

He  was  the  chancellor  in  the  court  of  conscience  be 
fore  he  was  the  counsellor  in  a  court  of  law. 

Whenever  there  was  conflict  in  the  judgments  of 
these  two  courts  with  Lincoln,  the  former  was  para 
mount. 


CHAPTER  X 

LINCOLN  THE  LOGICIAN 

"Prove  all  things.    Hold  fast  to  that  which  is  good." — ST.  PAUL. 

"Reason  is  the  life  of  the  law;  nay,  the  common  law  itself  is  nothing 
else  but  reason  .  .  .  the  law  which  is  perfection  of  reason." — SIR  ED 
WARD  COKE. 

PROBABLY  he  never  read  John  Stuart  Mill,  Doctor 
Whateley,  or  Sir  William  Hamilton,  yet  in  logic  he  was 
the  peer  of  all  of  them.  But  what  is  logic  ?  says  some 
one.  Boiled  down,  it  is  only  the  "  science  or  art  of 
exact  reasoning"  or  "the  laws  according  to  which  the 
processes  of  pure  thinking  should  be  conducted"  or 
"the  science  of  the  laws  of  thought." 

Lincoln  was,  first,  last,  and  all  the  time  a  "thinker." 
In  speaking  he  was  merely  telling  the  thought  on  the 
platform.  In  writing  he  was  merely  telling  the  thought 
on  paper. 

Reason,  calm,  candid,  calculating  reason,  was  the 
gift  of  God,  as  Paul  characterizes  it,  which  bridged  his 
"passion  for  knowledge"  to  his  "passion  for  justice." 
It  was  the  gift  by  which  he  sought  and  obtained  do 
minion  over  his  fellow  men. 

Herndon,  his  old  partner,  who  associated  with  him 
in  the  law  office  for  nearly  a  score  of  years,  had  ex 
traordinary  opportunity  of  observing  the  mental  pow 
ers  and  operations  of  Lincoln,  and  what  he  has  written 
may  well  command  our  attention: 

"He  had  no  faith,  and  no  respect  for  'say  so's/  come 
though  they  might  from  tradition  or  authority.  Thus 
everything  had  to  run  through  the  crucible,  and  be 

124 


LINCOLN  THE   LOGICIAN  125 

tested  by  the  fires  of  his  analytic  mind;  and  when  at 
last  he  did  speak,  his  utterances  rang  out  with  the 
clear  and  keen  ring  of  gold  upon  the  counters  of  the 
understanding.  He  reasoned  logically  through  anal 
ogy  and  comparison.  All  opponents  dreaded  his  origi 
nality  of  idea,  his  condensation,  definition,  and  force 
of  expression;  and  woe  be  to  the  man  who  hugged  to 
his  bosom  a  secret  error  if  Lincoln  got  on  the  chase  of 
it.  ...  His  conscience,  his  heart,  and  all  the  facul 
ties  and  qualities  of  his  mind  bowed  submissively  to 
the  despotism  of  his  reason.  He  lived  and  acted  from 
the  standard  of  reason — that  throne  of  logic,  home  of 
principle — the  realm  of  Deity  in  man.  It  is  from  this 
point  Mr.  Lincoln  must  be  viewed.  Not  only  was  he 
cautious,  patient,  and  enduring;  not  only  had  he  con 
centration  and  great  continuity  of  thought;  but  he  had 
profound  analytical  power.  His  vision  was  clear,  and 
he  was  emphatically  the  master  of  statement.  His 
pursuit  of  the  truth,  as  before  mentioned,  was  indefati 
gable.  He  reasoned  from  well-chosen  principles  with 
such  clearness,  force,  and  directness  that  the  tallest  in 
tellects  in  the  land  bowed  to  him.  He  was  the  strong 
est  man  I  ever  saw,  looking  at  him  from  the  elevated 
standpoint  of  reason  and  logic.  He  came  down  from 
that  height  with  irresistible  and  crashing  force.  His 
Cooper  Institute  and  other  printed  speeches  will  prove 
this;  but  his  speeches  before  the  courts — especially  the 
Supreme  Court  of  Illinois — if  they  had  been  preserved, 
would  demonstrate  it  still  more  plainly."  * 

This  mental  sketch  is  a  splendid  summary  of  our 
logician,  but  it  falls  short  of  the  methods  which  Lin 
coln  used  in  bringing  about  the  triumphs  of  his  rea 
son. 

*  Herndon,  vol.  II,  pp.  304  et  seq. 


126  THE  VOICE   OF   LINCOLN 

If  the  great  problem  of  our  education  is  to  find 
out  how  to  teach  and  train  the  mind  of  our  youth, 
how  to  think,  how  to  reason  clearly,  correctly,  and 
conclusively,  then  it  is  vitally  important  that  we 
should  study  this  great  " thinker"  and  "reasoner," 
God-made  and  self-made,  certainly  not  school-made, 
for  the  purpose  of  ascertaining  and  emulating  the  ways 
and  means  he  employed  in  the  study  of  any  subject,  and 
how  he  proceeded  to  demonstrate  the  relation  of  that 
subject  to  some  great  legal  principle  or  cause,  or  its 
natural  and  necessary  relation  to  the  betterment  and 
happiness  of  our  humanity. 

Early  in  life  he  exhibited  great  power  of  mental  con 
centration.  He  would  centralize  all  his  mental  forces 
upon  the  subject  under  investigation  to  the  exclusion 
of  everything  and  everybody  else. 

Herndon*  notes  this  quality  in  the  following  lan 
guage: 

"From  a  mental  standpoint  he  was  one  of  the  most 
energetic  young  men  in  his  day.  He  dwelt  altogether 
in  the  land  of  thought.  .  .  .  His  powers  of  concen 
tration  were  intense,  and  in  the  ability  through  analysis 
to  strip  bare  a  proposition  he  was  unexcelled.  His 
thoughtful  and  investigating  mind  dug  down  after 
ideas,  and  never  stopped  till  bottom  facts  were 
reached." 

Herndon  further  says :  f 

"When  Lincoln  entered  the  domain  of  investiga 
tion  he  was  a  severe  and  persistent  thinker,  and  had 
wonderful  endurance;  hence  he  was  abstracted,  and 
for  that  reason  at  times  was  somewhat  unsocial,  ret 
icent,  and  uncommunicative." 

Lincoln  said  during  the  war,  in  talking  about  the 

*  Vol.  I,  pages  39-41.  t  Vol.  II,  page  133. 


LINCOLN  THE   LOGICIAN  127 

" Trent  Affair/'  and  also  in  talking  about  Maximilian 
in  Mexico,  "one  war  at  a  time."  So  in  his  study  it 
was  "one  subject  at  a  time." 

Let  us  not  forget  here  that  Lincoln  in  his  early  life 
was  a  surveyor.  What  he  learned  in  a  practical  way 
in  the  survey  of  some  given  specific  lot  or  land  he  ap 
plied  when  surveying  some  given  or  specific  fact  or 
principle.  His  paramount  "passion  for  knowledge" 
heretofore  discussed  moved  him  to  use  his  mental  com 
pass  and  chain  so  that  he  would  "run  the  courses  and 
distances  from  monument  to  monument"  in  survey 
ing  all  the  facts  or  the  legal  principles  involved  in  any 
given  case  with  just  the  same  thoroughness  and  ex 
actness  as  he  did  when  he  surveyed  the  concrete 
land. 

As  he  himself  has  said  he  "bounded  it  on  the  north, 
bounded  it  on  the  east,  bounded  it  on  the  south,  and 
bounded  it  on  the  west." 

He  would  proceed  substantially  after  this  manner: 
Fact  A  is  bounded  on  the  north  by  causes  1  and  2,  on 
the  east  by  associations  3,  4,  and  5,  on  the  south  by 
consequences  6,  7,  and  8,  on  the  west  by  opposition 
9,  10,  and  11. 

This  was  the  method  of  the  surveyor.  It  was  the 
old  lesson  in  geography  by  virtue  of  which  the  student 
fixed  the  location  of  a  township,  a  county,  a  State  or 
a  country,  by  giving  its  geographical  boundaries. 

This  very  simplicity  was  one  of  the  great  secrets  of 
his  mental  strength. 

Each  fact  was  considered  in  its  causal  relation  with 
other  facts.  Lincoln  not  only  wanted  to  know  the 
cause  of  the  fact  and  the  consequences  from  that  fact, 
but  he  went  back  to  the  original  question  itself,  the 
question  back  of  all  others — is  it  in  fact  a  "fact"? 


128  THE  VOICE  OF  LINCOLN 

After  he  had  carefully  and  comprehensively  sur 
veyed  all  the  facts  relating  to  any  given  situation,  it 
was  a  Lincoln  characteristic,  stamping  all  his  methods 
and  arguments  in  court,  as  well  as  his  public  speeches 
and  presidential  papers,  to  discriminate  between  the 
essential  and  controlling  facts  and  principles  of  any 
given  case  or  cause,  and  the  unimportant  and  incon 
sequential.  He  was  continually  separating  the  wheat 
from  the  chaff,  the  ear  from  the  shuck. 

He  was  Nature's  great  jurist.  Whether  the  ques 
tion  was  one  of  fact  or  law,  whether  it  was  one  of  a 
truth  or  a  principle,  he  presented  both  sides  of  the 
cause  in  every  forum,  judicial  or  popular,  with  such 
evident  and  considerate  fairness  that  his  adversaries 
were  often  surprised  that  he  had,  not  infrequently, 
conceded  to  them  some  strength  that  they  had  not 
even  claimed.  His  concessions,  his  yieldings,  however, 
were  not  what  he  conceived  to  be  the  vital  issues  in 
the  case.  Those  he  stuck  to  with  a  bulldog  tenacity. 

Clear  thinking  is  the  first  essential  to  correct  think 
ing,  and  clearness  of  conception  was  the  first  thing 
for  which  Lincoln  labored.  To  convey  that  clear  con 
ception  to  others  was  his  second  great  purpose;  as  he 
himself  has  often  said,  he  sought  to  put  it  in  language 
plain  enough  "for  any  boy  I  knew  to  comprehend." 

Next,  having  reached  a  conclusion  through  a  course 
of  reasoning  in  his  own  mind,  he  proceeds  to  demon 
strate  the  truth  and  soundness  of  his  position  in  the 
simplest  terms  of  speech,  so  as  to  persuade  others  to 
his  way  of  thinking  and  to  the  support  of  his  cause. 

Constantly  he  has  before  him  the  word  "demon 
strate,"  as  to  which  he  was  quoted  in  an  earlier  chap 
ter,  but  which  will  bear  repetition  here  in  discussing 
his  logic. 


LINCOLN  THE   LOGICIAN  129 

Lincoln  soliloquized  as  follows: 

"  '  Lincoln,  you  can  never  make  a  lawyer,  if  you 
do  not  understand  what  demonstrate  means/  I  studied 
Euclid  until  I  could  give  any  proposition  in  the  first 
six  books  at  sight.  I  then  found  out  what  'demon 
strate'  meant." 

In  making  his  demonstration  it  is  strikingly  signif 
icant  that  his  great  addresses  in  law,  government,  or 
politics  were  usually  bottomed  upon  some  parable  or 
proposition  from  the  Bible,  some  primary  legal  axiom, 
or  political  proposition  from  the  Declaration  of  In 
dependence.  The  first  was  his  Magna  Charta  of  morals 
and  conduct,  the  last  his  Magna  Charta  of  liberty  and 
democracy.  No  better  example  of  this  method  can 
be  found  than  in  the  Springfield  speech  of  1858. 

Here  his  first  proposition,  which  served  as  his  major 
premise  of  argument,  was  a  familiar  or  undisputed 
fact  or  principle  from  the  Bible  to  which  all  men,  or 
most  men,  must  agree. 

Not  unfrequently  he  would  take  this  basic  fact  or 
proposition  from  some  statement  or  admission  of  the 
adversary,  as  he  did  in  the  great  Cooper  Union  speech 
in  New  York  City  in  1860. 

After  having  laid  down  his  major  premise,  he  would 
then  follow  it  up  with  his  minor  premises  with  such 
clearness  of  statement,  closeness  of  reasoning,  mar 
shalling  all  the  evidence,  all  the  facts,  as  a  great  mili 
tary  commander  does  his  troops  upon  the  one  given 
point  of  attack,  all  to  prove  to  the  point  of  probability 
or  to  the  point  of  moral  certainty  the  truth  or  wisdom 
of  the  proposition  in  question. 

After  making  his  demonstration  to  the  satisfaction 
of  the  average  man,  if  the  proposition  were  one  in 
volving  some  human  or  great  public  interest,  he  then 


130  THE  VOICE  OF  LINCOLN 

followed  it  with  a  simple,  sincere,  straightforward,  dedi 
cation  of  himself  and  his  honor  to  that  cause. 

Where  did  he  get  this  order  which  he  habitually 
followed  in  his  discussions  on  law  or  government? 
He  does  not  definitely  advise  us.  Neither  do  any  of 
his  biographers. 

It  is,  however,  more  than  passing  strange  that  Lin 
coln's  early  acquaintance  with,  and  study  of,  the 
Declaration  of  Independence  brought  him  directly 
and  intimately  in  touch  with  this  method  of  presenta 
tion  and  argument.  That  Declaration  of  Independence 
is  naturally  divisible  into  those  same  three  parts,  dec 
laration,  demonstration,  dedication.  It  is  most  natural 
for  us  to  presume  that  Lincoln,  who  studied  and  quoted 
the  Declaration  of  Independence  more  frequently 
than  any  other  American  statesman  of  his  own  time, 
or  any  other,  should  have  been  strikingly  impressed 
with  the  logical  order  so  plainly  and  powerfully  put 
in  the  Declaration  of  Independence,  by  his  great  proto 
type,  Thomas  Jefferson. 

From  the  time  Lincoln  first  entered  politics  in  1832, 
when  but  twenty-three  years  of  age,  until  his  martyr 
dom  in  1865,  it  is  the  logician,  the  thinker,  the  reasoner, 
that  we  meet  at  every  turn  of  the  road,  and  all  the 
while  he  is  dealing  with  matters  of  human  interest, 
matters  that  are  cardinal  and  controlling  in  any  given 
situation;  and  when  he  has  presented  his  cause  and 
offered  his  proof  in  support  thereof,  by  a  course  of 
reasoning  amounting  to  a  "  demonstration, "  he  could 
confidently  submit  it  to  the  people  in  the  belief  that 
he  would  persuade  them,  or  a  majority  of  them,  to 
the  Lincoln  view  of  things. 

Lincoln's  ability  as  a  logician  had  its  severest  test 
when  he,  as  the  "big  giant"  of  the  Republican  party 


LINCOLN  THE   LOGICIAN  131 

of  Illinois,  met  the  " little  giant'7  of  the  Democratic 
party  of  Illinois,  Stephen  A.  Douglas,  in  political  de 
bate,  in  1858. 

Herndon  says*  concerning  Lincoln  and  Douglas: 
"  History  furnishes  few  characters  whose  lives  and 
careers  were  so  nearly  parallel  as  those  of  Lincoln  and 
Douglas.  They  met  for  the  first  time  at  the  legisla 
ture  in  Vandalia  in  1834,  where  Lincoln  was  a  member 
of  the  house  of  representatives  and  Douglas  was  in 
the  lobby.  The  next  year  Douglas  was  also  a  member. 
In  1839  both  were  admitted  to  practice  in  the  supreme 
court  of  Illinois  on  the  same  day.  In  1841  both  courted 
the  same  young  lady.  In  1846  both  represented  Il 
linois  in  congress  at  Washington,  the  one  in  the  upper 
and  the  other  in  the  lower  House.  In  1858  they  were 
opposing  candidates  for  United  States  Senator;  and 
finally,  to  complete  the  remarkable  counterpart,  both 
were  candidates  for  the  presidency  in  1860.  While 
it  is  true  that  their  ambitions  ran  in  parallel  lines,  yet 
they  were  exceedingly  unlike  in  all  other  particulars. 
Douglas  was  short, — something  over  five  feet  high,— 
heavy  set,  with  a  large  head,  broad  shoulders,  deep 
chest,  and  striking  features.  He  was  polite  and  affable, 
but  fearless.  He  had  that  unique  trait,  magnetism, 
fully  developed  in  his  nature,  and  that  attracted  a  host 
of  friends  and  readily  made  him  a  popular  idol.  He 
had  had  extensive  experience  in  debate,  and  had  been 
trained  by  contact  for  years  with  the  great  minds  and 
orators  in  congress.  He  was  full  of  political  history, 
well  informed  on  general  topics,  eloquent  almost  to 
the  point  of  brilliancy,  self-confident  to  the  point  of 
arrogance,  and  a  dangerous  competitor  in  every  re 
spect.  What  he  lacked  in  ingenuity  he  made  up  in 
*  Vol.  II.,  page  72. 


132  THE  VOICE   OF  LINCOLN 

strategy,  and  if  in  debate  he  could  not  tear  down  the 
structure  of  his  opponent's  argument  by  a  direct  and 
violent  attack,  he  was  by  no  means  reluctant  to  resort 
to  a  strained  restatement  of  the  latter's  position  or 
to  the  extravagance  of  ridicule.  Lincoln  knew  his  man 
thoroughly  and  well.  He  had  often  met  Douglas  on 
the  stump;  was  familiar  with  his  tactics,  and  though 
fully  aware  of  his  'want  of  fixed  political  morals/  was 
not  averse  to  measuring  swords  with  the  elastic  and 
flexible  '  Little  Giant.7 

"Lincoln  himself  was  constructed  on  an  entirely 
different  foundation.  His  base  was  plain  common 
sense,  direct  statement,  and  the  inflexibility  of  logic. 
In  physical  make-up  he  was  cold — at  least  not  mag 
netic — and  made  no  effort  to  dazzle  people  by  his  bear 
ing.  '  He  cared  nothing  for  a  following,  and  though  he 
had  often  before  struggled  for  a  political  prize,  yet  in 
his  efforts  he  never  had  strained  his  well-known  spirit 
of  fairness  or  open  love  of  the  truth.  He  analyzed 
everything,  laid  every  statement  bare,  and  by  dint  of 
his  broad  reasoning  powers  and  manliness  of  admission 
inspired  his  hearers  with  deep  conviction  of  his  earnest 
ness  and  honesty.  Douglas  may  have  electrified  the 
crowds  with  his  eloquence  or  charmed  them  with  his 
majestic  bearing  and  dexterity  in  debate,  but  as  each 
man,  after  the  meetings  were  over  and  the  applause 
had  died  away,  went  to  his  home,  his  head  rang  with 
Lincoln's  logic  and  appeal  to  manhood." 

In  the  campaign  of  1858  no  political  contest  from 
coast  to  coast  held  the  attention  of  the  public  like  the 
" joint  discussion"  between  Stephen  A.  Douglas  and 
Abraham  Lincoln  in  the  State  of  Illinois. 

The  debates  were  held  beginning  August  21  to  Oc 
tober  15  inclusive.  They  were  seven  in  number,  one 


LINCOLN  THE   LOGICIAN  133 

held  in  each  congressional  district  so  as  to  cover  the 
entire  State. 

Douglas  was  the  Democratic  candidate  for  United 
States  senator  as  his  own  successor.  Lincoln  had  been 
unanimously  nominated  as  a  candidate  for  the  same 
office  by  the  Republican  State  Convention  of  Illinois, 
held  at  Springfield  on  June  17. 

These  seven  speeches  interestingly  and  exhaustively 
cover  the  issues  of  that  time,  and  in  full  occupy  two 
hundred  pages  of  closely  printed  matter.  They  merit 
the  careful  attention  and  study  of  every  political  stu 
dent,  of  the  debater,  the  orator,  the  logician,  the  lin 
guist.  They  have  an  intense  human  interest  in  that 
they  cover  the  history  of  our  country  upon  the  subject 
of  slavery,  as  well  as  the  fundamental  principles  of  our 
government  from  its  very  beginning  to  the  hour  of 
discussion. 

This  debate  takes  us  back  to  his  life  in  Gentryville, 
when  he  stood  upon  the  stump  and  talked  to  the  trees, 
arguing  pro  and  con  upon  the  issues  of  the  day,  and 
his  practice  of  "  polemics,"  as  he  called  it,  in  the  debat 
ing  societies  of  that  early  day,  his  labors  in  like  line  at 
New  Salem,  his  " Lyceum"  at  Springfield.  He  was  a 
" veritable  gladiator"  in  debate. 

It  would  be  impossible  to  give  the  reader  a  proper 
view  of  his  great  logical  powers  without  in  some 
measure  reviewing  this  extended  debate. 


CHAPTER  XI 

LINCOLN  THE  LOGICIAN 

(CONTINUED) 

DOUGLAS  had  demanded  and  received  the  concession 
of  not  only  opening  and  closing  the  first  debate,  but  of 
opening  and  closing  the  series.  This  placed  Mr.  Lin 
coln  under  a  considerable  handicap,  owing  to  the  fact 
that  Senator  Douglas  had  the  vantage-ground  of  choos 
ing  and  defining  the  issues  of  that  debate. 

In  the  popular  judgment  at  least  Lincoln  was  more 
or  less  forced  against  his  will  to  follow  Douglas's  lead 
and  to  devote  much  of  his  time  to  answering  Douglas's 
charges  as  to  matters  that  were  peculiarly  personal  and 
unimportant  as  to  the  great  issues  of  that  day,  but 
which,  the  charge  having  been  made,  must  receive 
some  measure  of  answer. 

The  political  finesse  and  personal  adroitness  of 
Douglas  is  nowhere  more  apparent  than  in  the  charges 
that  he  brought  against  Lincoln,  to  wit : 

"1.  That  Trumbull,  as  an  old-time  Democrat,  and 
Lincoln,  as  an  old-time  Whig,  had  formed  an  unholy 
combination  to  break  up  these  two  parties. 

"2.  That  Lincoln  was  responsible  for  the  abolition 
platform  of  1854  at  Springfield. 

"3.  That  the  Buchanan  administration  was  fighting 
Douglas  because  he  was  against  the  Lecompton  Con 
stitutional  Convention,  and  that  Lincoln  and  Trum 
bull  were  in  this  '  conspiracy.' 

134 


LINCOLN  THE   LOGICIAN  135 

"4.  That  Lincoln  was  guilty  of  political  treason  in 
attacking  the  'Dred  Scott  decision/ 

"5.  That  Lincoln,  by  virtue  of  his  Springfield  speech, 
was  emphatically  sectional,  and  was  endeavoring  to 
array  the  North  against  the  South. 

"6.  That  Lincoln  stood  for  absolute  equality  be 
tween  the  black  and  white,  socially  and  politically. 

"7.  That  Lincoln's  opposition  to  the  Mexican  War 
was  unpatriotic  and  even  treasonable." 

No  wonder  that  Lincoln  should  have  characterized 
this  style  of  argument  on  the  part  of  Douglas  in  aban 
doning  the  great  political  issues  of  the  day  and  devot 
ing  his  time  chiefly  to  personal  politics  by  the  fol 
lowing  observation: 

"  Douglas  is  playing  cuttle  fish — a  small  species  of 
fish  that  has  no  mode  of  defending  himself  when  pur 
sued  except  by  throwing  out  a  black  fluid  which  makes 
the  water  so  dark  the  enemy  cannot  see  it,  and  thus 
escapes. " 

Upon  the  other  hand,  Lincoln  strenuously  endeav 
ored  to  centre  the  debate  upon  the  great  questions 
of  that  day,  and  as  far  as  he  could,  with  due  def 
erence  to  the  position  of  his  opponent,  discussed  the 
big  questions  at  issue  along  the  following  several 
lines : 

1.  That  slavery  was  a  great  evil  and  a  violation  of 
the  fundamental  principle  of  our  government  as  an 
nounced  in  the  Declaration  of  Independence,  "all  men 
are  created  equal." 

2.  That  our  fathers,  while  recognizing  slavery  under 
the  Constitution,  believed  that  it  was  "in  the  course 
of  ultimate  extinction." 

3.  That  the  Kansas-Nebraska  Act,   as  a  piece  of 
legislation  by  Congress,  and  the  Dred  Scott  decision 


136  THE  VOICE  OF  LINCOLN 

as  an  unconstitutional  piece  of  legislation  by  a  court, 
had  reversed  the  policy  of  "ultimate  extinction "  by 
the  fathers  and  aided  and  encouraged  the  "further 
spread  of  it"  (slavery). 

4.  That  Douglas  so-called  "squatter  sovereignty " 
was  a  sham  and  a  fallacy. 

5.  That  while  he  (Lincoln)  believed  slavery  to  be 
wrong,  nevertheless  he  stood  for  giving  to  the  slave- 
masters  of  the  South  the  full  and  complete  protection 
in  the  possession  and  enjoyment  of  their  slaves  as  de 
clared  in  the  Constitution;  in  short,  that  there  should 
be  no  disturbance  or  interference  with  the  domestic 
institutions  in  the  States  of  the  South. 

Upon  the  first  proposition  he  said : 

"But  I  hold  that,  notwithstanding  all  this,  there  is 
no  reason  in  the  world  why  the  negro  is  not  entitled  to 
all  the  natural  rights  enumerated  in  the  Declaration  of 
Independence — the  right  to  life,  liberty,  and  the  pur 
suit  of  happiness.  I  hold  that  he  is  as  much  entitled 
to  these  as  the  white  man.  I  agree  with  Judge  Doug 
las  he  is  not  my  equal  in  many  respects — certainly  not 
in  color,  perhaps  not  in  moral  or  intellectual  endow 
ment.  But  in  the  right  to  eat  the  bread,  without  the 
leave  of  anybody  else,  which  his  own  hand  earns,  he  is 
my  equal,  and  the  equal  of  Judge  Douglas,  and  the  equal 
of  every  living  man." 

Upon  the  second  proposition  he  said: 

"And  when  the  Judge  reminds  me  that  I  have  often 
said  to  him  that  the  institution  of  slavery  has  existed 
for  eighty  years  in  some  States,  and  yet  it  does  not  exist 
hi  some  others,  I  agree  to  the  fact,  and  I  account  for  it 
by  looking  at  the  position  in  which  our  fathers  origi 
nally  placed  it — restricting  it  from  the  new  Territories 
where  it  had  not  gone,  and  legislating  to  cut  off  its 


LINCOLN  THE   LOGICIAN  137 

source  by  the  abrogation  of  the  slave-trade,  thus  put 
ting  the  seal  of  legislation  against  its  spread.  The  pub 
lic  mind  did  rest  in  the  belief  that  it  was  in  the  course 
of  ultimate  extinction.  But  lately,  I  think — and  in 
this  I  charge  nothing  on  the  Judge's  motives — lately,  I 
think,  that  he,  and  those  acting  with  him,  have  placed 
that  institution  on  a  new  basis,  which  looks  to  the 
perpetuity  and  nationalization  of  slavery.  And  while  it 
is  placed  upon  this  new  basis,  I  say,  and  I  have  said, 
that  I  believe  we  shall  not  have  peace  upon  the  question 
until  the  opponents  of  slavery  arrest  the  further  spread 
of  it,  and  place  it  where  the  public  mind  shall  rest  in 
the  belief  that  it  is  in  the  course  of  ultimate  extinc 
tion,  or,  on  the  other  hand,  that  its  advocates  will  push 
it  forward  until  it  shall  become  alike  lawful  in  all 
the  States,  old  as  well  as  new,  North  as  well  as  South. 
Now,  I  believe  if  we  could  arrest  the  spread,  and  place 
it  where  Washington  and  Jefferson  and  Madison  placed 
it,  it  would  be  in  the  course  of  ultimate  extinction,  and 
the  public  mind  would,  as  for  eighty  years  past,  believe 
that  it  was  in  the  course  of  ultimate  extinction.  The 
crisis  would  be  past,  and  the  institution  might  be  let 
alone  for  a  hundred  years,  if  it  should  live  so  long,  in 
the  States  where  it  exists ;  yet  it  would  be  going  out  of 
existence  in  the  way  best  for  both  the  black  and  the 
white  races." 

Upon  the  third  proposition  Lincoln  called  attention 
to  the  fact  that  the  old  Missouri  Compromise  Act  of 
1820  had  absolutely  prohibited  the  further  spread  of 
slavery  north  of  36°  30',  save  and  except  the  State  of 
Missouri — 36°  30'  was  the  parallel  of  the  southern 
boundary  of  that  State — and  that  the  Kansas-Nebraska 
Act,  of  which  Douglas  was  the  father  and  the  Dred 
Scott  decision,  of  which  Chief  Justice  Taney  was  the 


138  THE  VOICE   OF   LINCOLN 

author,  was  a  reversal  of  the  policy  of  ultimate  extinc 
tion  favored  by  the  fathers. 

Upon  this  latter  charge  Lincoln  said,  first  in  the 
Springfield  speech  and  later  on  in  the  debates: 

"We  cannot  absolutely  know  that  these  exact 
adaptations  are  the  result  of  preconcert;  but  when 
we  see  a  lot  of  framed  timbers,  different  portions  of 
which  we  know  have  been  gotten  out  at  different  times 
and  places,  and  by  different  workmen, — Stephen, 
Franklin,  Roger,  and  James,  for  instance, — and  when 
we  see  these  timbers  joined  together,  and  see  they 
exactly  make  the  frame  of  a  house  or  a  mill,  all  the 
tenons  and  mortises  exactly  fitting,  and  all  the  lengths 
and  proportions  of  the  different  pieces  exactly  adapted 
to  their  respective  places,  and  not  a  piece  too  many 
or  too  few, — not  omitting  the  scaffolding, — or  if  a 
single  piece  be  lacking,  we  see  the  place  in  the  frame 
exactly  fitted  and  prepared  yet  to  bring  such  piece 
in, — in  such  a  case  we  feel  it  impossible  not  to  believe 
that  Stephen  and  Franklin  and  Roger  and  James  all 
understood  one  another  from  the  beginning,  and  all 
worked  upon  a  common  plan  or  draft  drawn  before 
the  first  blow  was  struck." 

Lincoln  the  logician  nowhere  more  persuasively  ap 
peals  than  in  his  attack  upon  the  Dred  Scott  decision. 

He  said: 

"This  man  sticks  to  a  decision  which  forbids  the 
people  of  a  Territory  from  excluding  slavery,  and  he 
does  so,  not  because  he  says  it  is  right  in  itself, — he 
does  not  give  any  opinion  on  that, — but  because  it 
has  been  decided  by  the  court ;  and  being  decided  by 
the  court,  he  is,  and  you  are,  bound  to  take  it  in  your 
political  action  as  law,  not  that  he  judges  at  all  of  its 
merits,  but  because  a  decision  of  the  court  is  to  him 


LINCOLN  THE  LOGICIAN  139 

a  'Thus  saith  the  Lord.'  He  places  it  on  that  ground 
alone;  and  you  will  bear  in  mind  that  thus  committing 
himself  unreservedly  to  this  decision  commits  him  to 
the  next  one  just  as  firmly  as  to  this.  He  did  not  commit 
himself  on  account  of  the  merit  or  demerit  of  the  de 
cision,  but  it  is  a  'Thus  saith  the  Lord.'  The  next  de 
cision,  as  much  as  this,  will  be  a  'Thus  saith  the  Lord.' 
There  is  nothing  that  can  divert  or  turn  him  away 
from  this  decision.  It  is  nothing  that  I  point  out  to 
him  that  his  great  prototype,  General  Jackson,  did 
not  believe  in  the  binding  force  of  decisions.  It  is 
nothing  to  him  that  Jefferson  did  not  so  believe.  I 
have  said  that  I  have  often  heard  him  approve  of  Jack 
son's  course  in  disregarding  the  decision  of  the  Supreme 
Court  pronouncing  a  National  Bank  constitutional. 
He  says,  I  did  not  hear  him  say  so.  He  denies  the 
accuracy  of  my  recollection.  I  say  he  ought  to  know 
better  than  I,  but  I  will  make  no  question  about  this 
thing,  though  it  still  seems  to  me  that  I  heard  him  say 
it  twenty  times.  I  will  tell  him,  though,  that  he  now 
claims  to  stand  on  the  Cincinnati  platform  which  af 
firms  that  Congress  cannot  charter  a  National  Bank, 
in  the  teeth  of  that  old  standing  decision  that  Con 
gress  can  charter  a  bank.  And  I  remind  him  of  an 
other  piece  of  history  on  the  question  of  respect  for 
judicial  decisions,  and  it  is  a  piece  of  Illinois  history 
belonging  to  a  time  when  the  large  party  to  which 
Judge  Douglas  belonged  were  displeased  with  a  de 
cision  of  the  Supreme  Court  of  Illinois,  because  they 
had  decided  that  a  Governor  could  not  remove  a  Secre 
tary  of  State.  You  will  find  the  whole  story  in  Ford's 
History  of  Illinois,  and  I  know  that  Judge  Douglas 
will  not  deny  that  he  was  then  in  favor  of  overslaugh 
ing  that  decision  by  the  mode  of  adding  five  new  judges, 


140  THE  VOICE  OF  LINCOLN 

so  as  to  vote  down  the  four  old  ones.  Not  only  so, 
but  it  ended  in  the  Judge's  sitting  down  on  that  very 
bench  as  one  of  the  five  new  judges  to  break  down  the  four 
old  ones.  It  was  in  this  way  precisely  that  he  got  his 
title  of  judge.  Now,  when  the  Judge  tells  me  that 
men  appointed  conditionally  to  sit  as  members  of  a 
court  will  have  to  be  catechised  beforehand  upon  some 
subject,  I  say,  'You  know,  Judge;  you  have  tried  it.' 
When  he  says  a  court  of  this  kind  will  lose  the  con 
fidence  of  all  men,  will  be  prostituted  and  disgraced 
by  such  a  proceeding,  I  say,  'You  know  best,  Judge; 
you  have  been  through  the  mill.'  But  I  cannot  shake 
Judge  Douglas's  teeth  loose  from  the  Dred  Scott  de 
cision.  Like  some  obstinate  animal  (I  mean  no  dis 
respect)  that  will  hang  on  when  he  has  once  got  his 
teeth  fixed,  you  may  cut  off  a  leg,  or  you  may  tear  away 
an  arm,  still  he  will  not  relax  his  hold.  And  so  I  may 
point  out  to  the  Judge,  and  say  that  he  is  bespattered 
all  over,  from  the  beginning  of  his  political  life  to  the 
present  time,  with  attacks  upon  judicial  decisions; 
I  may  cut  off  limb  after  limb  of  his  public  record,  and 
strive  to  wrench  him  from  a  single  dictum  of  the 
court, — yet  I  cannot  divert  him  from  it.  He  hangs, 
to  the  last,  to  the  Dred  Scott  decision.  These  things 
show  there  is  a  purpose  strong  as  death  and  eternity  for 
which  he  adheres  to  this  decision,  and  for  which  he 
will  adhere  to  all  other  decisions  of  the  same  court." 
On  the  fourth  proposition,  Mr.  Lincoln  said: 
"What  is  Popular  Sovereignty?  Is  it  the  right  of 
the  people  to  have  slavery  or  not  have  it,  as  they  see 
fit,  in  the  Territories?  I  will  state — and  I  have  an 
able  man  to  watch  me — my  understanding  is  that 
Popular  Sovereignty,  as  now  applied  to  the  question 
of  slavery,  does  allow  the  people  of  a  Territory  to  have 


LINCOLN  THE  LOGICIAN  141 

slavery  if  they  want  to,  but  does  not  allow  them  not 
to  have  it  if  they  do  not  want  it.  (Dred  Scott  decision) 
I  do  not  mean  that  if  this  vast  concourse  of  people 
were  in  a  Territory  of  the  United  States,  any  one  of 
them  would  be  obliged  to  have  a  slave  if  he  did  not 
want  one;  but  I  do  say  that,  as  I  understand  the  Dred 
Scott  decision,  if  any  one  man  wants  slaves,  all  the 
rest  have  no  way  of  keeping  that  one  man  from  hold 
ing  them." 

On  the  fifth  proposition,  Mr.  Lincoln  said: 

"When  they  remind  us  of  their  constitutional  rights, 
I  acknowledge  them,  not  grudgingly,  but  fully  and 
fairly;  and  I  would  give  them  any  legislation  for  the 
reclaiming  of  their  fugitives  which,  should  not,  in  its 
stringency,  be  more  likely  to  carry  a  free  man  into 
slavery,  than  our  ordinary  criminal  laws  are  to  hang 
an  innocent  one.  ...  I  will  say  here,  while  upon 
this  subject,  that  I  have  no  purpose,  directly  or  in 
directly,  to  interfere  with  the  institution  of  slavery 
in  the  States  where  it  exists.  I  believe  I  have  no  lawful 
right  to  do  so,  and  I  have  no  inclination  to  do  so." 

I  submit  that  a  careful  reading  of  these  debates  will 
clearly  and  conclusively  show  that  these  positions  are 
unanswerable,  and  that  certainly  there  was  nothing 
in  anything  that  Douglas  said,  however  plausible  he 
was,  that  squarely  attempted  to  answer  them.  It  was 
the  " cuttle  fish"  sort  of  argument. 

Throughout  the  debate  he  sought  to  take  advantage 
of  the  public  state  of  mind  in  reference  to  its  prejudices 
against  social  and  marital  equality  for  the  negro.  Upon 
this  proposition  Mr.  Lincoln  said: 

"I  have  no  purpose  to  introduce  political  and  social 
equality  between  the  white  and  black  races.  There 
is  a  physical  difference  between  the  two  which  in  my 


142  THE  VOICE   OF  LINCOLN 

judgment  will  probably  forever  forbid  their  living  to 
gether  upon  the  footing  of  perfect  equality." 

He  further  said: 

"And  inasmuch  as  they  cannot  so  live,  while  they 
do  remain  together  there  must  be  the  position  of 
superior  and  inferior,  and  I  as  much  as  any  other  man 
am  in  favor  of  having  the  superior  position  assigned 
to  the  white  race.  I  say  upon  this  occasion  I  do  not 
perceive  that  because  the  white  man  is  to  have  the 
superior  position  the  negro  should  be  denied  every 
thing.  I  do  not  understand  that  because  I  do  not 
want  a  negro  woman  for  a  slave  I  must  necessarily 
want  her  for  a  wife.  My  understanding  is  that  I  can 
just  let  her  alone.  I  am  now  in  my  fiftieth  year,  and 
I  certainly  never  have  had  a  black  woman  for  either 
a  slave  or  a  wife.  So  it  seems  to  me  quite  possible  for 
us  to  get  along  without  making  either  slaves  or  wives 
of  negroes." 

Douglas's  effort  to  commit  Lincoln  to  the  proposi 
tion  of  social  and  political  equality  between  the  black 
and  white  is  referred  to  throughout  the  debates. 

Indeed,  in  almost  every  one  of  the  series  of  seven, 
Lincoln  (the  audience  being  a  new  one)  feels  called 
upon  to  make  reply.  Throughout  the  debates  Lincoln 
is  insistent  upon  giving  the  South  her  constitutional 
rights  as  to  slavery  with  zealous  and  vigilant  care. 
Nevertheless,  he  does  insist  most  vigorously  that  slavery 
is  inherently  wrong. 

Upon  this  proposition  he  says: 

"We  have  in  this  nation  this  element  of  domestic 
slavery.  It  is  a  matter  of  absolute  certainty  that  it 
is  a  disturbing  element.  It  is  the  opinion  of  all  the 
great  men  who  have  expressed  an  opinion  upon  it, 
that  it  is  a  dangerous  element.  We  keep  up  a  con- 


LINCOLN  THE   LOGICIAN  143 

troversy  in  regard  to  it.  That  controversy  necessarily 
springs  from  difference  of  opinion;  and  if  we  can  learn 
exactly — can  reduce  to  the  lowest  elements — what 
that  difference  of  opinion  is,  we  perhaps  shall  be  better 
prepared  for  discussing  the  different  systems  of  policy 
that  we  would  propose  in  regard  to  that  disturbing 
element.  I  suggest  that  the  difference  of  opinion,  re 
duced  to  its  lowest  of  terms,  is  no  other  than  the  dif 
ference  between  the  men  who  think  slavery  a  wrong, 
and  those  who  do  not  think  it  wrong.  The  Republican 
party  think  it  wrong;  we  think  it  is  a  moral,  a  social, 
and  a  political  wrong.  We  think  it  as  a  wrong  not 
confining  itself  merely  to  the  persons  or  the  States 
where  it  exists,  but  that  it  is  a  wrong  in  its  tendency, 
to  say  the  least,  that  extends  itself  to  the  existence  of 
the  whole  nation.  Because  we  think  it  wrong,  we  pro 
pose  a  course  of  policy  that  shall  deal  with  it  as  a  wrong. 
We  deal  with  it  as  with  any  other  wrong,  in  so  far  as 
we  can  prevent  its  growing  any  larger,  and  so  deal  with 
it  that  in  the  run  of  time  there  may  be  some  promise 
of  an  end  to  it.  We  have  a  due  regard  to  the  actual 
presence  of  it  amongst  us,  and  the  difficulties  of  getting 
rid  of  it  in  any  satisfactory  way,  and  all  the  constitu 
tional  obligations  thrown  about  it.  I  suppose  that 
in  reference  both  to  its  actual  existence  in  the  nation, 
and  to  our  constitutional  obligations,  we  have  no  right 
at  all  to  disturb  it  in  the  States  where  it  exists,  and  we 
profess  that  we  have  no  more  inclination  to  disturb 
it  than  we  have  the  right  to  do  it.  We  go  further  than 
that:  we  don't  propose  to  disturb  it  where,  in  one  in 
stance,  we  think  the  Constitution  would  permit  us. 
We  think  the  Constitution  would  permit  us  to  disturb 
it  in  the  District  of  Columbia.  Still,  we  do  not  propose 
to  do  that,  unless  it  should  be  in  terms  which  I  don't 


144  THE  VOICE   OF   LINCOLN 

suppose  the  nation  is  very  likely  soon  to  agree  to,— 
the  terms  of  making  the  emancipation  gradual,  and 
compensating  the  unwilling  owners.  Where  we  sup 
pose  we  have  the  constitutional  right,  we  retrain  our 
selves  in  reference  to  the  actual  existence  of  the  in 
stitution  and  the  difficulties  thrown  about  it.  We 
also  oppose  it  as  an  evil  so  far  as  it  seeks  to  spread  it 
self.  We  insist  on  the  policy  that  shall  restrict  it  to 
its  present  limits.  We  don't  suppose  that  in  doing 
this  we  violate  anything  due  to  the  actual  presence 
of  the  institution,  or  anything  due  to  the  constitu 
tional  guaranties  thrown  around  it.  ...  He  (Judge 
Douglas)  has  the  high  distinction,  so  far  as  I  know, 
of  never  having  said  slavery  is  either  right  or  wrong. 
Almost  everybody  else  says  one  or  the  other,  but  the 
Judge  never  does.  If  there  be  a  man  in  the  Democratic 
party  who  thinks  it  is  wrong,  and  yet  clings  to  that 
party,  I  suggest  to  him,  in  the  first  place,  that  his 
leader  don't  talk  as  he  does,  for  he  never  says  that  it 
is  wrong.  In  the  second  place,  I  suggest  to  him  that 
if  he  will  examine  the  policy  proposed  to  be  carried 
forward,  he  will  find  that  he  carefully  excludes  the 
idea  that  there  is  anything  wrong  in  it.  If  you  will 
examine  the  arguments  that  are  made  on  it,  you  will 
find  that  every  one  carefully  excludes  the  idea  that 
there  is  anything  wrong  in  slavery." 

In  the  last  debate  at  Alton,  October  15,  1858,  Lin 
coln  again  states  his  position  in  clear  and  unmistakable 
as  well  as  unanswerable  terms: 

"I  think  the  authors  of  that  notable  instrument 
intended  to  include  all  men,  but  they  did  not  mean 
to  declare  all  men  equal  in  all  respects.  They  did  not 
mean  to  say  all  men  were  equal  in  color,  size,  intellect, 
moral  development,  or  social  capacity.  They  defined 


LINCOLN  THE   LOGICIAN  145 

with  tolerable  distinctness  in  what  they  did  consider 
all  men  created  equal, — equal  in  certain  inalienable 
rights,  among  which  are  life,  liberty,  and  the  pursuit 
of  happiness.  This  they  said,  and  this  they  meant. 
They  did  not  mean  to  assert  the  obvious  untruth  that 
all  were  then  actually  enjoying  that  equality,  or  yet 
that  they  were  about  to  confer  it  immediately  upon 
them.  In  fact,  they  had  no  power  to  confer  such  a 
boon.  They  meant  simply  to  declare  the  right,  so  that 
the  enforcement  of  it  might  follow  as  fast  as  circum 
stances  should  permit. 

"They  meant  to  set  up  a  standard  maxim  for  free 
society  which  should  be  familiar  to  all, — constantly 
looked  to,  constantly  labored  for,  and  even,  though 
never  perfectly  attained,  constantly  approximated, 
and  thereby  constantly  spreading  and  deepening  its 
influence,  and  augmenting  the  happiness  and  value 
of  life  to  all  people,  of  all  colors,  everywhere." 

On  the  question  of  slavery  being  a  constant  menace 
to  the  Union,  Lincoln  says: 

"But  is  it  true  that  all  the  difficulty  and  agitation 
we  have  in  regard  to  this  institution  of  slavery  springs 
from  office  seeking,  from  the  mere  ambition  of  politi 
cians?  Is  that  the  truth?  How  many  times  have 
we  had  danger  from  this  question?  Go  back  to  the 
day  of  the  Missouri  Compromise.  Go  back  to  the 
Nullification  question,  at  the  bottom  of  which  lay  this 
same  slavery  question.  Go  back  to  the  time  of  the 
Annexation  of  Texas.  Go  back  to  the  troubles  that 
led  to  the  Compromise  of  1850.  You  will  find  that 
every  time,  with  the  single  exception  of  the  Nullifica 
tion  question,  they  sprung  from  an  endeavor  to  spread 
this  institution.  There  never  was  a  party  in  the  his 
tory  of  this  country,  and  there  probably  never  will 


146  THE  VOICE  OF  LINCOLN 

be,  of  sufficient  strength  to  disturb  the  general  peace 
of  the  country.  Parties  themselves  may  be  divided 
and  quarrel  on  minor  questions,  yet  it  extends  not 
beyond  the  parties  themselves.  But  does  not  this  ques 
tion  make  a  disturbance  outside  of  political  circles? 
Does  it  not  enter  into  the  churches  and  rend  them 
asunder?  What  divided  the  great  Methodist  Church 
into  two  parts,  North  and  South?  What  has  raised 
this  constant  disturbance  in  every  Presbyterian  Gen 
eral  Assembly  that  meets?  What  disturbed  the  Uni 
tarian  Church  in  this  very  city  two  years  ago?  What 
has  jarred  and  shaken  the  great  American  Tract  So 
ciety  recently,  not  yet  splitting  it,  but  sure  to  divide 
it  in  the  end  ?  Is  it  not  this  same  mighty,  deep-seated 
power  that  somehow  operates  on  the  minds  of  men, 
exciting  and  stirring  them  up  in  every  avenue  of  so 
ciety, — in  politics,  in  religion,  in  literature,  in  morals, 
in  all  the  manifold  relations  of  life?  Is  this  the  work 
of  politicians?  Is  that  irresistible  power,  which  for 
fifty  years  has  shaken  the  government  and  agitated 
the  people,  to  be  stilled  and  subdued  by  pretending 
that  it  is  an  exceedingly  simple  thing,  and  we  ought 
not  to  talk  about  it?  If  you  will  get  everybody  else 
to  stop  talking  about  it,  I  assure  you  I  will  quit  before 
they  have  half  done  so.  But  where  is  the  philosophy 
or  statesmanship  which  assumes  that  you  can  quiet 
that  disturbing  element  in  our  society  which  has  dis 
turbed  us  for  more  than  half  a  century,  which  has  been 
the  only  serious  danger  that  has  threatened  our  in 
stitutions, — I  say,  where  is  the  philosophy  or  the  states 
manship  based  on  the  assumption  that  we  are  to  quit 
talking  about  it,  and  that  the  public  mind  is  all  at  once 
to  cease  being  agitated  by  it?  Yet  this  is  the  policy 
here  in  the  North  that  Douglas  is  advocating, — that 


LINCOLN  THE   LOGICIAN  147 

we  are  to  care  nothing  about !  I  ask  you  if  it  is  not  a 
false  philosophy.  Is  it  not  a  false  statesmanship  that 
undertakes  to  build  up  a  system  of  policy  upon  the 
basis  of  caring  nothing  about  the  very  thing  that  every 
body  does  care  the  most  about  ? — a  thing  which  all  ex 
perience  has  shown  we  care  a  very  great  deal  about?" 

"On  this  subject  of  treating  it  as  a  wrong,  and  limit 
ing  its  spread,  let  me  say  a  word.  Has  anything  ever 
threatened  the  existence  of  this  Union  save  and  except 
this  very  institution  of  slavery?  What  is  it  that  we 
hold  most  dear  amongst  us?  Our  own  liberty  and 
prosperity.  What  has  ever  threatened  our  liberty  and 
prosperity  save  and  except  this  institution  of  slavery? 
If  this  is  true,  how  do  you  propose  to  improve  the  con 
dition  of  things  by  enlarging  slavery, — by  spreading 
it  out  and  making  it  bigger?  You  may  have  a  wen 
or  cancer  upon  your  person,  and  not  be  able  to  cut  it 
out,  lest  you  bleed  to  death;  but  surely  it  is  no  way 
to  cure  it,  to  engraft  it  and  spread  it  over  your  whole 
body.  That  is  no  proper  way  of  treating  what  you 
regard  a  wrong.  You  see  this  peaceful  way  of  dealing 
with  it  as  a  wrong, — restricting  the  spread  of  it,  and 
not  allowing  it  to  go  into  new  countries  where  it  has 
not  already  existed.  That  is  the  peaceful  way,  the 
old-fashioned  way,  the  way  in  which  the  fathers  them 
selves  set  us  the  example. 

"He  says  he  ' don't  care  whether  it  is  voted  up  or 
voted  down'  in  the  Territories.  I  do  not  care  myself, 
in  dealing  with  that  expression,  whether  it  is  intended 
to  be  expressive  of  his  individual  sentiments  on  the 
subject,  or  only  of  the  national  policy  he  desires  to 
have  established.  It  is  alike  valuable  for  my  purpose. 
Any  man  can  say  that  who  does  not  see  anything  wrong 


148  THE  VOICE   OF   LINCOLN 

in  slavery;  but  no  man  can  logically  say  it  who  does 
see  a  wrong  in  it,  because  no  man  can  logically  say  he 
don't  care  whether  a  wrong  is  voted  up  or  voted  down. 
He  may  say  he  don't  care  whether  an  indifferent  thing 
is  voted  up  or  down,  but  he  must  logically  have  a  choice 
between  a  right  thing  and  a  wrong  thing.  He  contends 
that  whatever  community  wants  slaves  has  a  right 
to  have  them.  So  they  have,  if  it  is  not  a  wrong.  But 
if  it  is  a  wrong,  he  cannot  say  people  have  a  right  to 
do  wrong.  He  says  that  upon  the  score  of  equality, 
slaves  should  be  allowed  to  go  in  a  new  Territory,  like 
other  property.  This  is  strictly  logical  if  there  is  no 
difference  between  it  and  other  property.  If  it  and 
other  property  are  equal,  his  argument  is  entirely  log 
ical.  But  if  you  insist  that  one  is  wrong  and  the  other 
right,  there  is  no  use  to  institute  a  comparison  be 
tween  right  and  wrong.  You  may  turn  over  every 
thing  in  the  Democratic  policy  from  beginning  to  end, 
whether  in  the  shape  it  takes  on  the  statute  book,  in 
the  shape  it  takes  in  the  Dred  Scott  decision,  in  the 
shape  it  takes  in  conversation,  or  the  shape  it  takes 
in  short  maxim-like  arguments, — it  everywhere  care 
fully  excludes  the  idea  that  there  is  anything  wrong  in  it. 
"That  is  the  real  issue.  That  is  the  issue  that  will 
continue  in  this  country  when  these  poor  tongues  of 
Judge  Douglas  and  myself  shall  be  silent.  It  is  the 
eternal  struggle  between  these  two  principles — right 
and  wrong — throughout  the  world.  They  are  the 
two  principles  that  have  stood  face  to  face  from  the 
beginning  of  time,  and  will  ever  continue  to  struggle. 
The  one  is  the  common  right  of  humanity,  and  the 
other  the  divine  right  of  kings.  It  is  the  same  principle 
in  whatever  shape  it  develops  itself.  It  is  the  same 
spirit  that  says,  'You  work  and  toil  and  earn  bread, 


LINCOLN  THE   LOGICIAN  149 

and  I'll  eat  it.'  No  matter  in  what  shape  it  comes, 
whether  from  the  mouth  of  a  king  who  seeks  to  be 
stride  the  people  of  his  own  nation  and  live  by  the 
fruit  of  their  labor,  or  from  one  race  of  men  as 
an  apology  for  enslaving  another  race,  it  is  the  same 
tyrannical  principle." 

Again  Lincoln  exposes  Douglas's  doctrine  of  "  un 
friendly  legislation"  that  the  latter  favored  in  the 
Freeport  debate  as  follows: 

"  Although  it  is  a  right  established  by  the  Constitu 
tion  of  the  United  States  to  take  a  slave  into  a  Terri 
tory  of  the  United  States  and  hold  him  as  property, 
yet,  unless  the  Territorial  Legislature  will  give  friendly 
legislation,  and,  more  especially,  if  they  adopt  un 
friendly  legislation,  they  can  practically  exclude  him. 
Now,  without  meeting  this  proposition  as  a  matter  of 
fact,  I  pass  to  consider  the  real  constitutional  obliga 
tion.  Let  me  take  the  gentleman  who  looks  me  in  the 
face  before  me,  and  let  us  suppose  that  he  is  a  member 
of  the  Territorial  Legislature.  The  first  thing  he  will 
do  will  be  to  swear  that  he  will  support  the  Constitu 
tion  of  the  United  States.  His  neighbor  by  his  side  in 
the  Territory  has  slaves  and  needs  Territorial  legisla 
tion  to  enable  him  to  enjoy  that  constitutional  right. 
Can  he  withhold  the  legislation  which  his  neighbor 
needs  for  the  enjoyment  of  a  right  which  is  fixed  in  his 
favor  in  the  Constitution  of  the  United  States  which 
he  has  sworn  to  support  ?  Can  he  withhold  it  without 
violating  his  oath?  And,  more  especially,  can  he  pass 
unfriendly  legislation  to  violate  his  oath?  Why,  this 
is  a  monstrous  sort  of  talk  about  the  Constitution  of 
the  United  States !  There  has  never  been  as  outlandish 
or  lawless  a  doctrine  from  the  mouth  of  any  respectable 
man  on  earth.  I  do  not  believe  it  is  a  constitutional 


150  THE  VOICE   OF   LINCOLN 

% 

right  to  hold  slaves  in  a  Territory  of  the  United  States. 
I  believe  the  decision  was  improperly  made  and  I  go 
for  reversing  it.  Judge  Douglas  is  furious  against  those 
who  go  for  reversing  a  decision.  But  he  is  for  legis 
lating  it  out  of  all  force  while  the  law  itself  stands.  I 
repeat  that  there  has  never  been  so  monstrous  a  doc 
trine  uttered  from  the  mouth  of  a  respectable  man." 

Lincoln  most  successfully  exposed  the  fallacy  of  this 
doctrine  of  "  squatter  sovereignty,"  announced  at  Free- 
port,  in  one  sentence  of  his  great  speech  at  Columbus, 
Ohio,  in  1859,  when  he  said: 

"When  all  the  trash,  the  words,  the  collateral  mat 
ter,  was  cleared  away  from  it,  all  chaff  was  fanned 
out  of  it,  it  was  a  pure  absurdity — no  less  than  a  thing 
may  be  lawfully  driven  away  from  where  it  has  a  lawful 
right  to  be.  Clear  it  of  all  verbiage  and  that  is  the 
naked  truth  of  his  proposition — that  a  thing  may  be 
lawfully  driven  from  the  place  where  it  has  a  lawful 
right  to  stay." 

It  is  little  wonder  that  throughout  the  country  wher 
ever  these  debates  or  extracts  from  them  had  been 
published,  that  the  things  that  were  remembered  be 
cause  they  were  approved,  were  Lincoln's  apt  and  able 
arguments  demonstrating  that  slavery  was  a  great  evil, 
that  "the  fathers  believed  it  in  the  course  of  ultimate 
extinction,"  and  that  the  South,  with  Senator  Douglas 
and  others  as  allies,  was  now  endeavoring  to  reverse 
that  policy  through  the  Kansas-Nebraska  Bill,  Dred 
Scott  decision,  and  other  means  to  bring  about  the 
further  spread  of  slavery. 

Greeley,  in  speaking  of  the  Lincoln-Douglas  debates, 
says: 

"I  cannot  help  regarding  that  senatorial  contest  of 
1858  between  Lincoln  and  Douglas  as  one  of  the  most 


LINCOLN  THE  LOGICIAN  151 

characteristic  and  at  the  same  time  most  creditable 
incidents  in  our  national  life.  There  was  an  honest 
and  earnest  difference  with  regard  to  a  most  important 
and  imminent  public  question.  ...  So  the  two  cham 
pions  traversed  the  prairies  speaking  alternately  to  the 
same  vast  audiences  at  several  central  accessible  points, 
and  speaking  separately  at  others,  until  the  day  of  the 
election;  when  Douglas  secured  a  small  majority  in 
either  branch  of  the  legislature  and  was  re-elected, 
though  Lincoln  had  the  larger  popular  vote.  .  .  .  Lin 
coln,  it  was  said,  was  beaten;  it  was  hasty  erring  judg 
ment.  This  canvass  made  him  stronger  at  home, 
stronger  with  the  Republicans  of  the  whole  country, 
and  when  the  next  National  Convention  of  his  party 
assembled  18  months  thereafter  he  became  its  nominee 
for  President  and  thus  achieved  the  highest  station  in 
the  gift  of  his  country,  but  for  that  misjudged  defeat 
in  1858  he  would  never  have  attained." 

These  debates  undoubtedly  contributed  more  to 
make  Abraham  Lincoln  a  national  character,  capable 
of  successful  leadership  in  the  public  mind  upon  the 
dominant  question  of  1860,  than  any  other  achievement 
of  his  life. 

What  Lincoln  said  in  these  debates  made  him  the 
popular  antislavery  leader  throughout  the  North. 
What  Douglas  said  throughout  these  debates,  espe 
cially  at  Freeport,  cost  him  his  political  leadership 
throughout  the  South.  As  Lincoln  had  increased  in 
presidential  size  by  reason  of  the  debate,  Douglas  had 
correspondingly  decreased  in  presidential  size. 

Lincoln's  direct  drives  at  the  aggressions  of  the  slave 
power  were  more  than  a  match  for  Douglas's  dodging. 
In  the  general  public  estimation  Lincoln  was  greater 
in  defeat  than  Douglas  in  victory. 


152  THE  VOICE   OF  LINCOLN 

One  thing  more  that  should  not  be  overlooked: 
Horace  Greeley,  the  great  editor  of  the  New  York 
Tribune,  had  been  a  thorn  in  the  flesh  of  Lincoln 
since  1858,  when  he  threw  the  influence  of  the  Tribune 
in  favor  of  Douglas's  re-election  as  United  States 
senator. 

After  Lincoln's  inauguration  his  unfriendliness 
seemed  to  develop  in  endeavoring  to  embarrass  the 
administration  upon  the  question  of  emancipation  of 
the  slave.  Greeley  was  early  and  strongly  in  favor  of 
that  emancipation.  He  bitterly  attacked  Lincoln  and 
the  administration  because  it  had  not  abolished  slavery 
by  some  sweeping  proclamation  of  emancipation.  The 
clamor  and  criticism  took  a  direct  and  definite  form  in 
an  open  letter  by  Horace  Greeley,  which  was  unusually 
severe  and  intemperate.  It  must  have  greatly  pained 
the  President.  Lincoln  did  the  most  unusual  thing  of 
ignoring  his  dignity  and  answering  the  letter  in  these 
memorable  words.  In  this  letter  we  see  again  the 
master  mind  of  the  logician.  Read  and  reread  it: 

"Hon.  Horace  Greeley,  Dear  Sir:  I  have  just  read 
yours  of  the  nineteenth  instant,  addressed  to  myself 
through  the  New  York  Tribune. 

"If  there  be  in  it  any  statements  or  assumptions  of 
fact  which  I  may  know  to  be  erroneous,  I  do  not  now 
and  here  controvert  them. 

1  i  If  there  be  any  inferences-  which  I  may  believe  to 
be  falsely  drawn,  I  do  not  now  and  here  argue  against 
them. 

"If  there  be  perceptible  in  it  an  impatient  and  dic 
tatorial  tone,  I  waive  it  in  deference  to  an  old  friend 
whose  heart  I  have  always  supposed  to  be  right. 

"As  to  the  policy  I  'seem  to  be  pursuing,'  as  you 


LINCOLN  THE   LOGICIAN  153 

say,  I  have  not  meant  to  leave  any  one  in  doubt.  I 
would  save  the  Union.  I  would  save  it  in  the  shortest 
way  under  the  Constitution. 

"The  sooner  the  national  authority  can  be  re 
stored,  the  nearer  the  Union  will  be — the  Union  as  it 
was. 

"If  there  be  those  who  would  not  save  the  Union 
unless  they  could  at  the  same  time  save  slavery,  I  do 
not  agree  with  them. 

"If  there  be  those  who  would  not  save  the  Union 
unless  they  could  at  the  same  time  destroy  slavery,  I 
do  not  agree  with  them. 

"My  paramount  object  is  to  save  the  Union,  and 
not  either  to  save  or  destroy  slavery. 

"  If  I  could  save  the  Union  without  freeing  any  slave, 
I  would  do  it;  if  I  could  save  it  by  freeing  all  the  slaves, 
I  would  do  it;  and  if  I  could  do  it  by  freeing  some  and 
leaving  others  alone,  I  would  also  do  that. 

"What  I  do  about  slavery  and  the  colored  race,  I 
do  because  I  believe  it  helps  to  save  this  Union;  and 
what  I  forbear,  I  forbear  because  I  do  not  believe  it 
would  help  to  save  the  Union. 

"I  shall  do  less  whenever  I  shall  believe  what  I  am 
doing  hurts  the  cause,  and  I  shall  do  more  whenever  I 
believe  doing  more  will  help  the  cause. 

"I  shall  try  to  correct  errors  when  shown  to  be 
errors,  and  I  shall  adopt  new  views  so  fast  as  they 
shall  appear  to  be  true  views. 

"I  have  here  stated  my  purpose  according  to  my 
views  of  official  duty,  and  I  intend  no  modification  of 
my  oft-expressed  personal  wish  that  all  men  every 
where  could  be  free. 

"Yours, 

"A.  LINCOLN." 


154  THE  VOICE  OF  LINCOLN 

That  letter  must  have  been  very  embarrassing  to 
Mr.  Greeley  and  it  no  doubt  suggested  to  him  that, 
after  all,  he  had  underestimated  the  ability  of  this 
"rail-splitter"  from  Illinois,  who  not  only  knew  how 
to  use  a  maul  but  how  to  use  a  pen  driven  by  a  maul. 

Lincoln  had  no  place  in  his  logic,  his  language,  or  his 
life  for  falsehood  or  fallacy,  hypocrisy  or  camouflage. 


CHAPTER  XII 

LINCOLN  LANGUAGE 

"Who  is  this  that  darkeneth  counsel  by  words  without  knowledge?" 

—Job. 

WHERE  did  Lincoln  get  his  language?  From  the 
Bible,  Bunyan's  "Pilgrim's  Progress,"  ".Esop's Fables," 
DeFoe's  " Robinson  Crusoe,"  Declaration  of  Indepen 
dence,  Blackstone,  and  last  but  not  least,  the  dictionary 
that  he  used  and  studied  continually.  These  gave  him 
models  or  types  of  the  simple,  pure,  and  powerful 
English. 

He  followed  the  advice  of  the  poet  who  wrote: 

"  And  don't  confound  the  language  of  the  nation 
With  long  tailed  words  in  osity  and  ation" 

Lincoln's  words  were  simple,  short,  and  strong. 
They  were  straightforward  and  hence  free  from  doubt. 
You  always  knew  what  he  meant  from  what  he  said. 
His  great  aim  was  simple  speech,  as  he  himself  has 
said: 

"I  could  not  sleep,  although  I  tried  to,  when  I  got 
on  such  a  hunt  for  an  idea  until  I  had  caught  it;  and 
when  I  thought  I  had  got  it  I  was  not  satisfied  unti> 
I  had  repeated  it  over  and  over  again  until  I  had  put  it 
in  language  plain  enough,  as  I  thought,  for  any  boy  I 
knew  to  comprehend.  .  .  .  This  was  a  kind  of  passion 
with  me." 

From  these  books  and  also  later  from  Burns  and 
Shakespeare,  he  picked  out  the  strong,  striking  pas- 

155 


156  THE  VOICE   OF  LINCOLN 

sages  and  repeated  them  over  and  over  again,  and  then 
he  would  take  the  sentiment  and  put  it  in  simple 
speech,  or,  as  he  says,  "in  language  plain  enough,  as  I 
thought,  for  any  boy  I  knew  to  comprehend/' 

As  we  have  seen  before,  this  he  did  upon  logs  and 
bark,  shingles  and  shovels,  with  a  piece  of  charcoal, 
with  quills  and  pokeberry  juice  on  scraps  of  paper, 
and  finally,  when  he  had  put  his  idea  in  plain,  pointed 
phrase,  he  would  copy  it  in  his  scrap-book  to  preserve 
it  for  future  use. 

Mentor  Graham  has  well  said  what  many  of  his 
biographers  have  referred  to  in  Lincoln's  study  of 
language : 

' 1 1  have  known  him  to  study  for  hours  the  best  way 
of  three  to  express  an  idea." 

Just  so  did  he  study  and  master  the  English  lan 
guage  in  the  preparation  of  all  his  compositions. 

When  I  think  of  the  average  boys  or  girls  in  the 
modern  school  and  college  making  a  sort  of  bugbear 
of  their  work  in  English  composition,  it  seems  more 
than  striking  strange  that  the  boy  Lincoln,  and  youth 
Lincoln,  and  man  Lincoln,  was  constantly  studying  and 
selecting  words  for  their  wealth  of  ideas  and  imagery 
that  would  give  to  the  human  mind  a  simple,  strong 
concept  of  what  he  wished  to  convey. 

His  meagre  materials,  limited  opportunities,  unfa 
vorable  surroundings,  would  have  fatally  discouraged 
most  boys,  but  his  " passion"  for  these  things  made 
his  pursuit  of  the  knowledge  of  English  a  real  pleasure; 
and  if  a  tree  is  known  by  its  fruits,  then  Lincoln's  mas 
tery  of  language  is  the  highest  evidence  of  his  careful, 
constant,  and  conscientious  study  of  great  masterpieces 
of  English  prose  and  poetry. 

His  biographers  have  written  as  follows: 


LINCOLN  LANGUAGE  157 

Nicolay  and  Hay  say  of  him: 

"  Nothing  would  have  more  amazed  Mr.  Lincoln 
than  to  hear  himself  called  a  man  of  letters;  but  this 
age  had  produced  few  greater  writers.  Emerson  ranks 
him  with  ^Esop;  Montalembert  commends  his  style  as 
a  model  for  Princes." 

Curtis  says : 

"He  used  the  simplest  words  in  the  language,  but 
they  strengthened  every  case  he  stated,  and  no  fact, 
or  anecdote  or  argument  ever  lost  force  or  effect  from 
his  style  of  presentation." 

Holland  says: 

"He  had  been  from  a  child  in  the  habit  of  putting 
his  thoughts  into  language.  He  wrote  much,  and  to 
this  fact  is  doubtless  owing  his  clearness  in  statement. 
He  could  state  with  great  exactness  any  fact  within 
the  range  of  his  knowledge.  His  knowledge  was  not 
great,  nor  his  vocabulary  rich,  but  he  could  state  the 
details  of  one  by  the  use  of  the  other  with  a  precision 
that  Daniel  Webster  never  surpassed." 

But  in  addition  to  the  books  that  he  studied  and 
assimilated  the  use  that  he  made  of  this  knowledge, 
though  referred  to  in  a  previous  chapter,  will  bear 
repetition,  for  after  all  in  study  the  first  essential  is 
"repetition." 

Bacon  has  said  "reading  maketh  a  full  man,  confer 
ence  a  ready  man,  and  writing  an  exact  man."  The 
boy  Lincoln  was  constantly  doing  all  three,  but  seemed 
particularly  to  grasp  the  importance  of  putting  his 
thoughts  in  the  plainest  phrase  that  had  point  and 
"punch"  to  it. 

His  boyhood  compositions  on  "Temperance,"  "Cru 
elty  to  Animals,"  and  the  "American  Government," 
which  he  wrote  at  an  early  age  for  his  own  discipline 


158  THE  VOICE   OF   LINCOLN 

and  education,  were  great  factors  in  producing  the 
Gettysburg  Address. 

So  likewise  were  his  humble  efforts  as  a  boy  in  public 
speaking  to  the  trees  of  the  forest,  to  the  boys  and 
girls  of  the  neighborhood,  to  the  literary  societies  and 
debating  clubs  and  lyceums,  each  time  doing  a  little 
better  than  he  had  done  the  time  before. 

Of  course  when  we  think  of  Lincoln  the  orator  we 
think  of  the  Gettysburg  oration,  which  will  be  found 
on  page  221. 

This  two-minute  oration  was  such  a  masterpiece  of 
logic,  language,  politics,  and  patriotism,  that  a  special 
chapter  has  been  later  devoted  to  its  psychology,  its 
unity  of  thought,  its  fundamental  democracy,  its  ele 
gance  of  expression,  typical  not  only  of  those  times 
but  of  the  times  to-day. 

His  language  is  as  pure  and  persuasive  as  his  logic 
is  plain  and  powerful,  and  they  are  almost  inseparable 
by  any  analysis  of  his  speeches  or  papers.  \ 

What  would  serve  as  an  illustration  of  the  one  very 
often  performs  the  same  service  in  the  other. 

But  some  things  that  he  has  said  are  peculiarly 
pertinent  to  picture  to  the  mind's  eye  his  sweet, 
simple  speech  touching  the  tenderer  relations  of  our 
humanity.  This  type  of  speech  is  best  illustrated 
by  what  has  become  known  as  the  "  Widow  Bixby 
Letter." 

"DEAR  MADAM: 

"I  have  been  shown  in  the  files  of  the  War  Depart 
ment  a  statement  of  the  Adjutant  General  of  Massa 
chusetts  that  you  are  the  mother  of  five  sons  who  have 
died  gloriously  on  the  field  of  battle. 

"I  feel  how  weak  and  fruitless  must  be  any  words  of 


LINCOLN   LANGUAGE  159 

mine  which  should  attempt  to  beguile  you  from  the 
grief  of  a  loss  so  overwhelming. 

"But  I  cannot  refrain  from  tendering  to  you  the 
consolation  that  may  be  found  in  the  thanks  of  the 
Republic  they  died  to  save.  I  pray  that  our  Heavenly 
Father  may  assuage  the  anguish  of  your  bereavement 
and  leave  you  only  the  cherished  memory  of  the  loved 
and  lost,  and  the  solemn  pride  that  must  be  yours  to 
have  laid  so  costly  a  sacrifice  upon  the  altar  of  freedom. 
11  Yours  very  sincerely  and  respectfully, 

"A.  LINCOLN." 

The  Johnston  children  that  Sarah  Bush  Johnston 
Lincoln  brought  into  the  new  family  when  Abraham 
was  only  ten  years  of  age  mixed  most  agreeably  with 
the  young  Lincolns.  They  were  about  the  same  age. 

One  of  the  boys,  John  Johnston,  was  a  shiftless,  ne'er- 
do-well  sort  of  fellow  that  was  constantly  appealing  to 
Lincoln  in  later  years  for  assistance. 

Numerous  letters  passed  between  them,  indicating  a 
very  tender  and  intimate  relation,  notwithstanding 
Johnston's  infirmities  and  his  many  importunities  upon 
Lincoln,  from  time  to  time,  for  help. 

Lincoln,  in  his  own  inimitable  way,  sends  him  a 
letter,  which  for  kind,  fatherly  advice  is  rarely  excelled. 

Lincoln's  human  side,  that  was  all  prominent  in  his 
dealings  with  his  fellow  men,  creeps  out  all  through 
this  letter.  It  is  worthy  of  a  place  here  to  show  his 
simple  speech  and  his  good  sense  and  understanding 
of  the  kind  of  nature  that  he  was  dealing  with. 

The  letter  follows : 

"DEAR  JOHNSTON: 

"Your  request  for  eighty  dollars  I  do  not  think  it 
best  to  comply  with  now.  At  the  various  times  when 


160  THE  VOICE   OF  LINCOLN 

I  have  helped  you  a  little  you  have  said  to  me,  'We 
can  get  along  very  well  now/  but  in  a  very  short  time 
I  find  you  in  the  same  difficulty  again.  Now  this  can 
only  happen  by  some  defect  in  your  conduct.  What 
that  defect  is,  I  think  I  know.  You  are  not  lazy,  and 
still  you  are  an  idler.  I  doubt  whether,  since  I  saw 
you,  you  have  done  a  good  whole  day's  work  in  any 
one  day.  You  do  not  very  much  dislike  to  work,  and 
still  you  do  not  work  much,  merely  because  it  does  not 
seem  to  you  that  you  could  get  much  for  it.  This 
habit  of  uselessly  wasting  time  is  the  whole  difficulty; 
and  it  is  vastly  important  to  you,  and  still  more  so  to 
your  children,  that  you  should  break  the  habit.  It  is 
more  important  to  them  because  they  have  longer  to 
live,  and  can  keep  out  of  an  idle  habit,  before  they  are 
in  it,  easier  than  they  can  get  out  after  they  are  in. 

"  You  are  in  need  of  some  ready  money,  and  what  I 
propose  is  that  you  shall  go  to  work  '  tooth  and  naiP 
for  somebody  who  will  give  you  money  for  it.  Let 
father  and  your  boys  take  charge  of  things  at  home, 
prepare  for  a  crop,  and  make  the  crop,  and  you  go  to 
work  for  the  best  money  wages,  or  in  discharge  of  any 
debt  you  owe,  that  you  can  get — and  to  secure  you  a 
fair  reward  for  your  labor  I  now  promise  you  that  for 
every  dollar  you  will,  between  this  and  the  first  of  next 
May,  get  for  your  own  labor,  either  in  money  or  as 
your  own  indebtedness,  I  will  then  give  you  one  other 
dollar.  By  this,  if  you  hire  yourself  at  ten  dollars  a 
month,  from  me  you  will  get  ten  more,  making  twenty 
dollars  a  month  for  your  work.  In  this  I  do  not  mean 
you  shall  go  off  to  St.  Louis,  or  the  lead  mines,  or  the 
gold  mines  in  California,  but  I  mean  for  you  to  go  at  it 
for  the  best  wages  you  can  get  close  to  home  in  Coles 
County.  Now  if  you  will  do  this,  you  will  be  soon  out 


LINCOLN  LANGUAGE  161 

of  debt,  and,  what  is  better,  you  will  have  a  habit  that 
will  keep  you  from  getting  in  debt  again.  But  if  I 
should  now  clear  you  out,  next  year  you  would  be  just 
as  deep  in  as  ever.  You  say  you  would  give  your 
place  in  heaven  for  $70  or  $80.  Then  you  value  your 
place  in  heaven  very  cheap,  for  I  am  sure  you  can, 
with  the  offer  I  make,  get  the  seventy  or  eighty  dollars 
for  four  or  five  months'  work. 

"You  say,  if  I  will  furnish  you  the  money,  you  will 
deed  me  the  land,  and  if  you  don't  pay  the  money  back 
you  will  deliver  possession.  Nonsense !  If  you  can't 
now  live  with  the  land,  how  will  you  then  live  without 
it?  You  have  always  been  kind  to  me,  and  I  do  not 
mean  to  be  unkind  to  you.  On  the  contrary,  if  you 
will  but  follow  my  advice,  you  will  find  it  worth  more 
than  eight  times  eighty  dollars  to  you. 
"  Affectionately, 

"Your  brother, 

"A.  LINCOLN." 

The  "Little  Giant"  of  Illinois,  with  his  apparent 
suavity  and  culture,  might  well  be  suspected  as  the 
author  of  the  Bixby,  or  Johnston,  lines,  but  the  "Big 
Giant"  of  Illinois,  with  his  uncouth  and  awkward 
exterior  would  be  the  last  person  in  the  State  who 
would  be  presumed  to  have  been  the  author  of  such 
sound  sense  and  wholesome  tender  sentiment  as  ap 
pears  in  the  foregoing. 

For  pure  patriotic  phrase,  for  a  common  sense  of 
the  great  common  heart  of  our  humanity,  this  language 
is  unsurpassed. 

I  want  to  add  here  the  closing  of  the  first  inaugural 
address : 

"The   Chief   Magistrate   derives   all   his   authority 


162  THE  VOICE   OF  LINCOLN 

from  the  people,  and  they  have  conferred  none  upon 
him  to  fix  terms  for  the  separation  of  the  States.  The 
people  themselves  can  do  this  also  if  they  choose;  but 
the  Executive,  as  such,  has  nothing  to  do  with  it.  His 
duty  is  to  administer  the  present  Government,  as  it 
came  to  his  hands,  and  to  transmit  it,  unimpaired  by 
him,  to  his  successor. 

"Why  should  there  not  be  a  patient  confidence  in 
the  ultimate  justice  of  the  people?  Is  there  any  better 
or  equal  hope  in  the  world  ?  In  our  present  differences 
is  either  party  without  faith  of  being  in  the  right  ?  If 
the  Almighty  Ruler  of  Nations,  with  his  eternal  truth 
and  justice,  be  on  your  side  of  the  North,  or  on  yours 
of  the  South,  that  truth  and  that  justice  will  surely 
prevail  by  the  judgment  of  this  great  tribunal  of  the 
American  people. 

"By  the  frame  of  the  Government  under  which  we 
live,  this  same  people  have  wisely  given  their  public 
servants  but  little  power  for  mischief;  and  have,  with 
equal  wisdom,  provided  for  the  return  of  that  little 
to  their  own  hands  at  very  short  intervals.  While 
the  people  retain  their  virtue  and  vigilance,  no  ad 
ministration,  by  any  extreme  of  wickedness  or  folly, 
can  very  seriously  injure  the  Government  in  the  short 
space  of  four  years. 

"My  countrymen,  one  and  all,  think  calmly  and 
well  upon  this  whole  subject.  Nothing  valuable  can 
be  lost  by  taking  time.  If  there  be  an  object  to  hurry 
any  of  you,  in  hot  haste,  to  a  step  which  you  would 
never  take  deliberately,  that  object  will  be  frustrated 
by  taking  time;  but  no  good  object  can  be  frustrated 
by  it.  Such  of  you  as  are  now  dissatisfied,  still  have 
the  old  Constitution  unimpaired,  and,  on  the  sensitive 
point,  the  laws  of  your  own  framing  under  it;  while 


LINCOLN   LANGUAGE  163 

the  new  Administration  will  have  no  immediate  power, 
if  it  would,  to  change  either.  If  it  were  admitted  that 
you  who  are  dissatisfied  hold  the  right  side  in  the  dis 
pute,  there  still  is  no  single  good  reason  for  precipitate 
action.  Intelligence,  patriotism,  Christianity,  and  a 
firm  reliance  on  Him  who  has  never  yet  forsaken  this 
favored  land  are  still  competent  to  adjust,  in  the  best 
way,  all  our  present  difficulty. 

"In  your  hands,  my  dissatisfied  fellow-country 
men,  and  not  in  mine,  is  the  momentous  issue  of  civil 
war.  The  Government  will  not  assail  you.  You  can 
have  no  conflict,  without  being  yourselves  the  ag 
gressors.  You  have  no  oath  registered  in  Heaven  to 
destroy  the  Government,  while  I  shall  have  the  most 
solemn  one  to  ' preserve,  protect  and  defend  it.' 

"I  am  loath  to  close.  We  are  not  enemies,  but 
friends.  We  must  not  be  enemies.  Though  passion 
may  have  strained,  it  must  not  break  our  bonds  of 
affection.  The  mystic  chords  of  memory,  stretching 
from  every  battle-field,  and  patriot  grave,  to  every 
living  heart  and  hearthstone,  all  over  this  broad  land, 
will  yet  swell  the  chorus  of  the  Union,  when  again 
touched,  as  surely  they  will  be,  by  the  better  angels 
of  our  nature." 

Attention  is  challenged  to  the  last  paragraph.  The 
preparation  of  this  inaugural  address  will  also  be  dealt 
with  later.  Here,  it  is  sufficient  to  say  that  paragraph 
is  the  most  important  and  substantial  change  made 
in  the  inaugural  address.  The  change  was  made  in 
Washington  the  day  before  the  inaugural  at  the  sug 
gestion  of  Seward  and  concurred  in  by  Chase  and  other 
members  of  the  Cabinet. 

It  was  suggested  that  Mr.  Lincoln's  original  draft 
was  not  sufficiently  fraternal  toward  the  South  and 


164  THE  VOICE   OF  LINCOLN 

its  people,  and  that  something  further  should  be  said 
on  this  point.  Mr.  Lincoln  requested  the  secretary 
of  state,  Mr.  Seward,  to  submit  a  draft.  Seward  sub 
mitted  the  following: 

"I  close.  We  are  not,  we  must  not  be,  aliens  or 
enemies,  but  fellow-countrymen  and  brethren.  Al 
though  passion  has  strained  our  bonds  of  affection 
too  hardly,  they  must  not,  I  am  sure  they  will  not, 
be  broken.  The  mystic  chords,  which,  proceeding  from 
so  many  battlefields  and  so  many  patriot  graves, 
pass  through  all  the  hearts  and  all  hearths  in  this  broad 
continent  of  ours,  will  yet  again  harmonize  in  their 
ancient  music  when  breathed  upon  by  the  guardian 
angel  of  the  nation. " 

A  study  of  this  original  paragraph  and  the  revision 
made  by  Lincoln  is  not  only  interesting,  but  instruc 
tive.  It  illuminates  the  superiority  of  Lincoln  as  a 
master  of  language  far  beyond  that  of  his  more  scholarly 
and  cultured  secretary  of  state,  Mr.  Seward,  who  had 
been  twice  governor  of  New  York,  and  twice  elected 
United  States  senator  from  the  Empire  State,  and 
whose  defeat  at  Chicago  gave  the  college  men  and  cul 
ture  of  the  nation  a  severe  shock. 

"Lincoln's  logic  and  language  are  so  intertwined  in 
one  grand  cable  of  conviction  that  of  necessity  they 
must  be  more  or  less  treated  together,  and  yet  for  sim 
plicity  and  strength,  statement  and  sweetness  of  senti 
ment  nothing  has  surpassed  his  second  inaugural  ad 
dress.  Because  of  its  brevity  and  beauty,  it  is  here 
given  in  full. 

"  Fellow-Countrymen — At  this  second  appearing  to 
take  the  oath  of  the  Presidential  office,  there  is  less 
occasion  for  an  extended  address  than  there  was  at 
the  first.  Then  a  statement  somewhat  in  detail  of  a 


LINCOLN   LANGUAGE  165 

course  to  be  pursued  seemed  very  fitting  and  proper. 
Now,  at  the  expiration  of  four  years,  during  which 
public  declarations  have  been  constantly  called  forth 
on  every  point  and  phase  of  the  great  contest  which 
still  absorbs  the  attention  and  engrosses  the  energies 
of  the  nation,  little  that  is  new  could  be  presented. 

"The  progress  of  our  arms,  upon  which  all  else 
chiefly  depends,  is  as  well  known  to  the  public  as  to 
myself;  and  it  is,  I  trust,  reasonably  satisfactory  and 
encouraging  to  all.  With  high  hope  for  the  future, 
no  prediction  in  regard  to  it  is  ventured. 

"On  the  occasion  corresponding  to  this  four  years 
ago,  all  thoughts  were  anxiously  directed  to  an  impend 
ing  civil  war.  All  dreaded  it;  all  sought  to  avoid  it. 
While  the  inaugural  address  was  being  delivered  from 
this  place,  devoted  altogether  to  saving  the  Union 
without  war,  insurgent  agents  were  in  the  city  seeking 
to  destroy  it  without  war — seeking  to  dissolve  the 
Union  and  divide  the  effect  by  negotiation.  Both 
parties  deprecated  war;  but  one  of  them  would  make 
war  rather  than  let  the  nation  survive,  and  the  other 
would  accept  war  rather  than  let  it  perish;  and  the 
war  came. 

"One-eighth  of  the  whole  population  were  colored 
slaves,  not  distributed  generally  over  the  Union,  but 
localized  in  the  southern  part  of  it.  These  slaves  con 
stituted  a  peculiar  and  powerful  interest.  All  knew 
that  this  interest  was  somehow  the  cause  of  the  war. 
To  strengthen,  perpetuate  and  extend  this  interest, 
was  the  object  for  which  the  insurgents  would  rend 
the  Union  even  by  war,  while  the  government  claimed 
no  right  to  do  more  than  to  restrict  the  territorial  en 
largement  of  it. 

"Neither  party  expected  for  the  war  the  magnitude 


166  THE  VOICE   OF  LINCOLN 

or  the  duration  which  it  has  already  attained.  Neither 
anticipated  that  the  cause  of  the  conflict  might  cease 
with,  or  even  before,  the  conflict  itself  should  cease. 
Each  looked  for  an  easier  triumph,  and  a  result  less 
fundamental  and  astounding. 

"Both  read  the  same  Bible  and  pray  to  the  same 
God,  and  each  invokes  his  aid  against  the  other.  It 
may  seem  strange  that  any  men  should  dare  to  ask 
a  just  God's  assistance  in  wringing  their  bread  from 
the  sweat  of  other  men's  faces;  but  let  us  judge  not, 
that  we  be  not  judged.  The  prayers  of  both  could 
not  be  answered.  That  of  neither  has  been  answered 
fully.  The  Almighty  has  his  own  purposes.  'Woe 
unto  the  world  because  of  offences,  for  it  must  needs 
be  that  offences  come:  but  woe  to  that  man  by  whom 
the  offence  cometh.'  If  we  shall  suppose  that  Amer 
ican  slavery  is  one  of  these  offences,  which  in  the 
providence  of  God  must  needs  come,  but  which  having 
continued  through  his  appointed  time,  he  now  wills 
to  remove,  and  that  he  gives  to  both  North  and  South 
this  terrible  war  as  the  woe  due  to  those  by  whom  the 
offence  came,  shall  we  discern  therein  any  departure 
from  those  divine  attributes  which  the  believers  in  a 
living  God  always  ascribe  to  him  ?  Fondly  do  we  hope, 
fervently  do  we  pray,  that  this  mighty  scourge  of  war 
may  soon  pass  away.  Yet,  if  God  wills  that  it  con 
tinue  until  all  the  wealth  piled  by  the  bondman's  two 
hundred  and  fifty  years  of  unrequited  toil  shall  be 
sunk,  and  until  every  drop  of  blood  drawn  with  the 
lash  shall  be  paid  with  another  drawn  with  the  sword; 
as  was  said  three  thousand  years  ago,  so  still  it  must 
be  said,  'The  judgments  of  the  Lord  are  true  and 
righteous  altogether.' 

"With  malice  toward  none,  with  charity  for  all, 
with  firmness  in  the  right,  as  God  gives  us  to  see  the 


LINCOLN   LANGUAGE  167 

right,  let  us  strive  on  to  finish  the  work  we  are  in, 
to  bind  up  the  nation's  wounds,  to  care  for  him  who 
shall  have  borne  the  battle  and  for  his  widow  and  or 
phans,  to  do  all  which  may  achieve  and  cherish  a  just 
and  a  lasting  peace  among  ourselves  and  with  all  na 
tions." 

After  Lincoln  had  made  his  famous  Cooper  Institute 
speech  in  February,  1860,  which  is  recorded  and  ana 
lyzed  in  another  chapter,  he  made  a  trip  through 
New  England. 

Holland,  gives  us  some  valuable  suggestions  as  to 
his  reception  by  the  people  of  New  Egnland  as  fol 
lows: 

"Some  very  interesting  reminiscences  of  this  trip 
were  communicated  to  the  public  in  1864,  by  Rev. 
John  P.  Gulliver  of  Norwich,  who  listened  to  his  ad 
dress  in  that  city.  On  the  morning  following  the  speech, 
he  met  Mr.  Lincoln  upon  a  train  of  cars,  and  entered 
into  conversation  with  him.  In  speaking  of  his  speech, 
Mr.  Gulliver  remarked  to  Mr.  Lincoln  that  he  thought 
it  the  most  remarkable  one  he  ever  heard.  'Are  you 
sincere  in  what  you  say?'  inquired  Mr.  Lincoln.  'I 
mean  every  word  of  it,'  replied  the  minister.  '  Indeed, 
sir,'  he  continued,  'I  learned  more  of  the  art  of  public 
speaking  last  evening  than  I  could  from  a  whole  course 
of  lectures  on  rhetoric.'  Then  Mr.  Lincoln  informed 
him  of  'a  most  extraordinary  circumstance'  that  oc 
curred  at  New  Haven  a  few  days  previously.  A  pro 
fessor  of  rhetoric  in  Yale  College,  he  had  been  told, 
came  to  hear  him,  took  notes  of  his  speech,  and  gave 
a  lecture  on  it  to  his  class  the  following  day;  and,  not 
satisfied  with  that,  followed  him  to  Meriden  the  next 
evening  and  heard  him  again  for  the  same  purpose. 
All  this  seemed  to  Mr.  Lincoln  to  be  'very  extraor 
dinary.'  He  had  been  sufficiently  astonished  by  his 


168  THE  VOICE  OF  LINCOLN 

success  at  the  West,  but  he  had  no  expectation  of  any 
marked  success  at  the  East,  particularly  among  lit 
erary  and  learned  men.  'Now/  said  Mr.  Lincoln,  'I 
should  like  very  much  to  know  what  it  was  in  my  speech 
which  you  thought  so  remarkable,  and  which  interested 
my  friend  the  professor  so  much?'  Mr.  Gulliver's 
answer  was:  'The  clearness  of  your  statements,  the 
unanswerable  style  of  your  reasoning,  and,  especially, 
your  illustrations,  which  were  romance  and  pathos 
and  fun  and  logic  all  welded  together/ 

"  After  Mr.  Gulliver  had  fully  satisfied  his  curiosity 
by  a  further  exposition  of  the  politician's  peculiar 
power,  Mr.  Lincoln  said,  'I  am  much  obliged  to  you 
for  this.  I  have  been  wishing  for  a  long  time  to  find 
some  one  who  would  make  this  analysis  for  me.  It 
throws  light  on  a  subject  which  has  been  dark  to  me. 
I  can  understand  very  readily  how  such  a  power  as 
you  have  ascribed  to  me  will  account  for  the  effect 
which  seems  to  be  produced  by  my  speeches.  I  hope 
you  have  not  been  too  flattering  in  your  estimate. 
Certainly  I  have  had  a  most  wonderful  success  for  a 
man  of  my  limited  education.'  ' 

I  want  to  add  one  more  letter  of  the  many  that 
might  with  almost  equal  propriety  be  included  in  this 
chapter,  which  reveals  in  a  most  intimate  and  peculiarly 
human  way,  the  great  heart  of  this  great  President; — 
his  letter  to  General  Hooker  upon  his  appointment 
in  command  of  the  Army  of  the  Potomac  in  the  place 
of  General  Burnside,  who  had  been  relieved  after  the 
battle  of  Fredericksburg : 

" GENERAL:  I  have  placed  you  at  the  head  of  the 
Army  of  the  Potomac.  Of  course  I  have  done  this 
upon  what  appear  to  me  to  be  sufficient  reasons,  and 
yet  I  think  it  best  for  you  to  know  that  there  are  some 


LINCOLN   LANGUAGE  169 

things  in  regard  to  which  I  am  not  quite  satisfied  with 
you.  I  believe  you  to  be  a  brave  and  skillful  soldier, 
which  of  course  I  like.  I  also  believe  you  do  not  mix 
politics  with  your  profession,  in  which  you  are  right. 
You  have  confidence  in  yourself,  which  is  a  valuable 
if  not  indispensable  quality.  You  are  ambitious,  which, 
within  reasonable  bounds,  does  good  rather  than  harm; 
but  I  think  that  during  General  Burnside's  command 
of  the  army  you  have  taken  counsel  of  your  ambition 
and  thwarted  him  as  much  as  you  could,  in  which  you 
did  a  great  wrong  to  the  country,  and  to  a  most  meri 
torious  and  honorable  brother  officer.  I  have  heard, 
in  such  a  way  as  to  believe  it,  of  your  recently  saying 
that  both  the  army  and  the  government  needed  a  dic 
tator.  Of  course  it  was  not  for  this,  but  in  spite  of  it, 
that  I  have  given  you  the  command.  Only  those  gen 
erals  who  gain  successes  can  set  up  dictators.  What 
I  now  ask  of  you  is  military  success,  and  I  will  risk 
the  dictatorship.  The  government  will  support  you 
to  the  utmost  of  its  ability,  which  is  neither  more  nor 
less  than  it  has  done  and  will  do  for  all  commanders. 
I  much  fear  that  the  spirit  which  you  have  aided  to 
infuse  into  the  army,  of  criticising  their  commander 
and  withholding  confidence  from  him,  will  now  turn 
upon  you.  I  shall  assist  you  as  far  as  I  can  to  put  it 
down.  Neither  you  nor  Napoleon,  if  he  were  alive 
again,  could  get  any  good  out  of  an  army  while  such 
a  spirit  prevails  in  it;  and  now  beware  of  rashness. 
Beware  of  rashness,  and  give  us  victories.  Yours  very 
truly, 

"A.  LINCOLN. " 

We  are  told  of  the  effect  on  Hooker  in  these  words: 

"He  finished  reading  it,   almost  with  tears  in  his 

eyes;  and  as  he  folded  it  and  put  it  back  in  the  breast 


170  THE  VOICE   OF  LINCOLN 

of  his  coat,  he  said,  '  That  is  just  such  a  letter  as  a  father- 
might  write  to  a  son.    It  is  a  beautiful  letter,  and  al 
though  I  think  he  was  harder  on  me  than  I  deserved, 
I  will  say  that  I  love  the  man  who  wrote  it.'  ' 

What  was  it  about  his  speech  that  gave  it  such  per 
suasive  power  and  such  political  permanence?  This 
concrete  man  was  always  thinking  about  concrete 
things,  as  to  their  concrete  properties,  and  as  to  con 
crete  persons  with  their  concrete  rights.  He  did  not 
deal  with  metaphysical  abstractions  nor  with  the 
beauties  of  transcendentalism.  He  had  lived  the 
varied  life  of  a  common  humanity,  from  its  lowest 
depths  to  its  loftiest  heights.  He  knew  human  poverty 
and  privation,  human  suffering  and  service,  and  when 
his  country  called,  as  Cincinnatus  left  the  plough,  so 
he  left  the  law  office  to  which  he  had  been  jealously 
wedded  for  some  years,  and  espoused  humanity's  cause 
for  liberty,  entire  liberty,  eternal  liberty,  the  liberty 
of  all  men  everywhere. 

His  oratory  was  not  the  oratory  of  expediency,  or 
opportunism;  it  was  the  oratory  of  the  eternal  reason 
and  right  of  things.  What  he  said  more  than  a  half- 
century  ago  was  entirely  and  eternally  reasonable  and 
right  when  he  said  it,  and  therefore  it  is  entirely  and 
eternally  reasonable  and  right  to-day. 

He  was  the  universal  representative  man — hu 
manity's  man,  unbounded  by  time  or  territory,  ser 
vice  or  station. 

Nature  has  endowed  many  orators  with  some  won 
derful  prepossession,  such  as  an  attractive  physique, 
a  rich  voice,  or  exceptional  dramatic  power.  He  had 
none  of  these.  He  was  awkward,  ungainly,  and  had 
a  squeaky,  falsetto  voice.  These  disadvantages,  how 
ever,  were  more  than  compensated  by  the  humanities 


LINCOLN  LANGUAGE  171 

of  his  head  and  heart,  put  in  such  plain  premises,  link 
on  link,  in  such  simple,  sincere  speech  that  it  was  like 
one  human  heart  speaking  to  a  multitude  of  human 
hearts  in  their  own  language  and  life. 

When  we  remember  how  much  of  controversy  in 
this  old  world  of  ours  arises  out  of  uncertain,  indefinite, 
double-meaning  words,  not  unfrequently  resulting  in 
bitterness  and  jealousy  in  our  community  life,  when 
we  remember  how  much  of  litigation,  from  the  lowest 
to  the  highest  courts  of  the  land,  arises  out  of  uncer 
tain,  inappropriate,  ambiguous  words  and  phrases  in 
our  constitutions,  our  statutes,  our  contracts,  the 
importance  of  the  Lincoln  model  for  written  or  spoken 
speech  should  be  most  obvious  to  all  of  us. 

No  other  man  of  his  own  time  has  demonstrated 
himself  to  be  such  an  accurate  and  reliable  interpreter 
of  human  nature  and  human  needs  as  this  Man  of 
Illinois. 


CHAPTER  XIII 
LINCOLN  ON  GOVERNMENT 

LINCOLN  thought  in  the  terms  of  democracy;  spoke 
its  speech;  lived  its  life;  and  died  triumphant  in  its 
defense. 

Lincoln  was  his  own  pedagogue  and  pupil  in  govern 
ment.  He  not  only  studied  the  trunk  and  the  limbs, 
but  the  root  and  all  its  branches.  His  like  has  not 
yet  been  recorded  in  biography  for  thoroughness  and 
efficiency  in  research  and  study  of  foundation  facts 
and  first  principles. 

I  remember  a  sentence  in  one  of  my  old  text-books 
which  reads: 

"I  know  a  lot  of  things,  but  nothing  thoroughly; 
I  remember  a  mass  of  things  but  nothing  distinctly." 

How  this  sentence  applies  to  many  of  us ! 

What  Lincoln  knew  he  knew  "  thoroughly."  What 
he  remembered,  he  remembered  " distinctly,"  and 
he  knew  and  remembered  vitally  enough  so  that  he 
could  use  and  did  use  that  knowledge  in  a  practical 
way. 

The  Bible  gave  him  the  ethical  side  of  government, 
the  Declaration  of  Independence,  Constitution  of  the 
United  States,  Constitution  of  the  State  of  Indiana, 
the  Ordinance  of  1787,  as  contained  in  Turnham's  now 
famous  volume  of  Revised  Statutes  of  Indiana,  gave 
him  the  political  side  of  government. 

Doubtless,  also  he  learned  much  from  some  history 
of  the  United  States  which  early  came  into  his  pos- 

172 


LINCOLN  ON  GOVERNMENT  173 

session,  and  also  Weems's  "Life  of  Washington,"  to 
gether  with  other  biographies  and  histories. 

His  intelligent  and  enthusiastic  interest  in  the  sub 
ject  of  government  cropped  out  at  a  very  early  age, 
considering  his  handicaps.  Several  of  his  reliable  biog 
raphers  say  that  when  he  was  but  seventeen  years  of 
age  he  wrote  a  composition  on  the  "  American  Govern 
ment,"  giving  particular  attention  to  "the  necessity 
of  preserving  the  Constitution  and  perpetuating  the 
Union." 

It  is  almost  prophetic,  weirdly  so,  that  this  boy  at 
seventeen  should  be  writing  an  essay  on  "perpetuat 
ing  the  Union,"  when  thirty-five  years  later  he  was  to 
be  the  great  central  figure  in  the  conduct  of  the  Civil 
War  for  the  purpose  of  "perpetuating  the  Union." 

Lincoln's  life,  as  boy  and  youth,  is  a  splendid  illus 
tration  of  the  old  doctrine  of  evolution  announced  in 
Holy  Writ,  "first  the  blade,  then  the  ear,  after  that 
the  full  corn  in  the  ear." 

His  studies  and  views  continued  their  development 
until  we  have  a  masterpiece  in  the  address  he  delivered 
before  the  Lyceum  of  Springfield  in  January,  1837. 

It  reads,  as  many  of  Lincoln's  addresses  read,  as  if 
they  were  made  not  for  then,  but  for  now.  At  that 
time  he  was  twenty-eight  years  of  age.  His  English 
style  was  not  quite  as  simple,  or  as  smooth  as  it  was 
in  later  years,  but  it  had  all  the  Lincoln  essentials  in 
it,  his  simple  statement  of  a  given  situation,  his 
demonstration  of  its  being  wrong  or  right,  and  his  sug 
gestion  and  demonstration  of  the  remedy.  His  clear 
declaration  against  mobs  and  riots  and  other  lawless 
ness  are  matters  of  intense  interest  to  the  American 
public  to-day. 

The  "Mob"  of  1837  seems  quite  the  same  as  the 


174  THE  VOICE   OF  LINCOLN 

"Mob"  of  1917.  The  passing  of  eighty  years  has  not 
changed  human  nature  nor  the  danger  of  lawlessness 
to  our  institutions. 

Among  other  things  he  said: 

"I  hope  I  am  not  over  wary;  but  if  I  am  not  there 
is  even  now  something  of  ill  omen  amongst  us.  I  mean 
the  increasing  disregard  for  law  which  pervades  the 
country — the  growing  disposition  to  substitute  the 
wild  and  furious  passions  in  lieu  of  the  sober  judgment 
of  courts,  and  the  worse  than  savage  mobs  for  the  exec 
utive  ministers  of  justice.  This  disposition  is  awfully 
fearful  in  any  community;  and  that  it  now  exists  in 
ours,  though  grating  to  our  feelings  to  admit,  it  would 
be  a  violation  of  truth  and  an  insult  to  our  intelligence 
to  deny.  Accounts  of  outrages  committed  by  mobs 
form  the  e very-day  news  of  the  times.  They  have 
pervaded  the  country  from  New  England  to  Louisiana; 
they  are  neither  peculiar  to  the  eternal  snows  of  the 
former  nor  the  burning  suns  of  the  latter;  they  are 
not  the  creature  of  climate,  neither  are  they  confined 
to  the  slaveholding  or  the  non-slaveholding  States. 
Alike  they  spring  up  among  the  pleasure-hunting 
masters  of  Southern  slaves,  and  the  order-loving  citizens 
of  the  land  of  steady  habits.  Whatever  then  their 
cause  may  be,  it  is  common  to  the  whole  country. 

"It  would  be  tedious  as  well  as  useless  to  recount 
the  horrors  of  all  of  them.  Those  happening  in  the 
State  of  Mississippi  and  at  St.  Louis  are  perhaps  the 
most  dangerous  in  example  and  revolting  to  humanity. 
In  the  Mississippi  case  they  first  commenced  by  hang 
ing  the  regular  gamblers — a  set  of  men  certainly  not 
following  for  a  livelihood  a  very  useful  or  very  honest 
occupation,  but  one  which,  so  far  from  being  forbidden 
by  the  laws,  was  actually  licensed  by  an  act  of  the 


LINCOLN  ON   GOVERNMENT  175 

Legislature  passed  but  a  single  year  before.  Next, 
negroes  suspected  of  conspiring  to  raise  an  insurrection 
were  caught  up  and  hanged  in  all  parts  of  the  State; 
then,  white  men  supposed  to  be  leagued  with  the 
negroes;  and  finally,  strangers  from  neighboring  states, 
going  thither  on  business,  were  in  many  instances  sub 
jected  to  the  same  fate.  Thus  went  on  this  process 
of  hanging,  from  gamblers  to  negroes,  from  negroes  to 
white  citizens,  and  from  these  to  strangers,  till  dead 
men  were  seen  literally  dangling  from  the  boughs  of 
trees  upon  every  roadside,  and  in  numbers  almost 
sufficient  to  rival  the  native  Spanish  moss  of  the  coun 
try  as  a  drapery  of  the  forest. 

"Turn,  then,  to  that  horror-striking  scene  at  St. 
Louis.  A  single  victim  only  was  sacrificed  there.  This 
story  is  very  short,  and  is  perhaps  the  most  highly 
tragic  of  anything  of  its  length  that  has  ever  been  wit 
nessed  in  real  life.  A  mulatto  man  by  the  name  of 
Mclntosh  was  seized  in  the  street,  dragged  to  the 
suburbs  of  the  city,  chained  to  a  tree,  and  actually 
burned  to  death;  and  all  within  a  single  hour  from  the 
time  he  had  been  a  freeman  attending  to  his  own  busi 
ness  and  at  peace  with  the  world. 

"Such  are  the  effects  of  mob  law,  and  such  are  the 
scenes  becoming  more  and  more  frequent  in  this  land 
so  lately  famed  for  love  of  law  and  order,  and  the  stories 
of  which  have  even  now  grown  too  familiar  to  attract 
anything  more  than  an  idle  remark. 

"But  you  are  perhaps  ready  to  ask,  'What  has  this  to 
do  with  the  perpetuation  of  our  political  institutions?' 
I  answer,  'It  has  much  to  do  with  it.'  Its  direct  con 
sequences  are,  comparatively  speaking,  but  a  small 
evil,  and  much  of  its  danger  consists  in  the  proneness 
of  our  minds  to  regard  its  direct  as  its  only  con- 


176  THE  VOICE   OF   LINCOLN 

sequences.  Abstractly  considered,  the  hanging  of  the 
gamblers  at  Vicksburg  was  of  but  little  consequence. 
They  constitute  a  portion  of  population  that  is  worse 
than  useless  in  any  community;  and  their  death,  if 
no  pernicious  example  be  set  by  it,  is  never  matter  of 
reasonable  regret  with  any  one.  If  they  were  annually 
swept  from  the  stage  of  existence  by  the  plague  of 
smallpox,  honest  men  would  perhaps  be  much  profited 
by  the  operation.  Similar,  too,  is  the  correct  reasoning 
in  regard  to  the  burning  of  the  negro  at  St.  Louis.  He 
had  forfeited  his  life  by  the  perpetration  of  an  out 
rageous  murder  upon  one  of  the  most  worthy  and  re 
spectable  citizens  of  the  city,  and  had  he  not  died  as 
he  did,  he  must  have  died  by  the  sentence  of  the  law 
in  a  very  short  time  afterward.  As  to  him  alone,  it 
was  as  well  the  way  it  was  as  it  could  otherwise  have 
been.  But  the  example  in  either  case  was  fearful. 
When  men  take  it  in  their  heads  to-day  to  hang 
gamblers  or  burn  murderers,  they  should  recollect  that 
in  the  confusion  usually  attending  such  transactions 
they  will  be  as  likely  to  hang  or  burn  some  one  who  is 
neither  a  gambler  nor  a  murderer  as  one  who  is,  and 
that,  acting  upon  the  example  they  set,  the  mob  of 
to-morrow  may,  and  probably  will,  hang  or  burn  some 
of  them  by  the  very  same  mistake.  And  not  only  so; 
the  innocent,  those  who  have  ever  set  their  faces  against 
violations  of  law  in  every  shape,  alike  with  the  guilty 
fall  victims  to  the  ravages  of  mob  law;  and  thus  it 
goes  up,  step  by  step,  till  all  the  walls  erected  for  the 
defense  of  the  persons  and  property  of  individuals  are 
trodden  down  and  disregarded.  But  all  this,  even,  is 
not  the  full  extent  of  the  evil.  By  such  examples,  by 
instances  of  the  perpetrators  of  such  acts  going  un 
punished,  the  lawless  in  spirit  are  encouraged  to  be- 


LINCOLN  ON   GOVERNMENT  177 

come  lawless  in  practice;  and  having  been  used  to  no 
restraint  but  dread  of  punishment,  they  thus  become 
absolutely  unrestrained.  Having  ever  regarded  govern 
ment  as  their  deadliest  bane,  they  make  a  jubilee  of 
the  suspension  of  its  operations,  and  pray  for  nothing 
so  much  as  its  total  annihilation.  While,  on  the  other 
hand,  good  men,  men  who  love  tranquillity,  who  desire 
to  abide  by  the  laws  and  enjoy  their  benefits,  who  would 
gladly  spill  their  blood  in  the  defense  of  their  country, 
seeing  their  property  destroyed,  their  families  insulted, 
and  their  lives  endangered,  their  persons  injured,  and 
seeing  nothing  in  prospect  that  forebodes  a  change  for 
the  better,  become  tired  of  and  disgusted  with  a  govern 
ment  that  offers  them  no  protection,  and  are  not  much 
averse  to  a  change  in  which  they  imagine  they  have 
nothing  to  lose.  Thus,  then,  by  the  operation  of  this 
mobocratic  spirit  which  all  must  admit  is  now  abroad 
in  the  land,  the  strongest  bulwark  of  any  government, 
and  particularly  of  those  constituted  like  ours,  may 
effectually  be  broken  down  and  destroyed — I  mean 
the  attachment  of  the  people.  Whenever  this  effect 
shall  be  produced  among  us;  whenever  the  vicious 
portion  of  population  shall  be  permitted  to  gather  in 
bands  of  hundreds  and  thousands,  and  burn  churches, 
ravage  and  rob  provision-stores,  throw  printing-presses 
into  rivers,  shoot  editors,  and  hang  and  burn  obnoxious 
persons  at  pleasure  and  with  impunity,  depend  on  it, 
this  government  cannot  last.  By  such  things  the  feel 
ings  of  the  best  citizens  will  become  more  or  less 
alienated  from  it,  and  thus  it  will  be  left  without 
friends,  or  with  too  few,  and  those  few  too  weak  to 
make  their  friendship  effectual.  At  such  a  time,  and 
under  such  circumstances,  men  of  sufficient  talent, 
and  ambition  will  not  be  wanting  to  seize  the  oppor- 


178  THE  VOICE   OF   LINCOLN 

tunity,  strike  the  blow,  and  overturn  that  fair  fabric 
which  for  the  last  half  century  has  been  the  fondest 
hope  of  the  lovers  of  freedom  throughout  the  world. 

"I  know  the  American  people  are  much  attached 
to  their  government;  I  know  they  would  suffer  much 
for  its  sake;  I  know  they  would  endure  evils  long  and 
patiently  before  they  would  ever  think  of  exchanging 
it  for  another — yet,  notwithstanding  all  this,  if  the 
laws  be  continually  despised  and  disregarded,  if  their 
rights  to  be  secure  in  their  persons  and  property  are 
held  by  no  better  tenure  than  the  caprice  of  a  mob, 
the  alienation  of  their  affections  from  the  government 
is  the  natural  consequence;  and  to  that,  sooner  or 
later,  it  must  come. 

"Here,  then  is  one  point  at  which  danger  may  be 
expected. 

"The  question  recurs,  'How  shall  we  fortify  against 
it  ? '  The  answer  is  simple.  Let  every  American,  every 
lover  of  liberty,  every  well-wisher  to  his  posterity  swear 
by  the  blood  of  the  Revolution  never  to  violate  in  the 
least  particular  the  laws  of  the  country,  and  never  to 
tolerate  their  violation  by  others.  As  the  patriots  of 
seventy-six  did  to  the  support  of  the  Declaration  of 
Independence,  so  to  the  support  of  the  Constitution 
and  laws  let  every  American  pledge  his  life,  his  property, 
and  his  sacred  honor — let  every  man  remember  that 
to  violate  the  law  is  to  trample  on  the  blood  of  his 
father,  and  to  tear  the  charter  of  his  own  and  his  chil 
dren's  liberty.  Let  reverence  for  the  laws  be  breathed 
by  every  American  mother  to  the  lisping  babe  that 
prattles  on  her  lap;  let  it  be  taught  in  schools,  in  semi 
naries,  and  in  colleges;  let  it  be  written  in  primers, 
spelling-books,  and  in  almanacs;  let  it  be  preached 
from  the  pulpit,  proclaimed  in  legislative  halls,  and 


LINCOLN   ON   GOVERNMENT  179 

enforced  in  courts  of  justice.  And,  in  short,  let  it  be 
come  the  political  religion  of  the  nation;  and  let  the 
old  and  the  young,  the  rich  and  the  poor,  the  grave 
and  the  gay  of  all  sexes  and  tongues  and  colors  and 
conditions,  sacrifice  unceasingly  upon  its  altars. 

"  While  ever  a  state  of  feeling  such  as  this  shall  uni 
versally  or  even  very  generally  prevail  throughout  the 
nation,  vain  will  be  every  effort,  and  fruitless  every 
attempt,  to  subvert  our  national  freedom. 

"When  I  so  pressingly  urge  a  strict  observance  of 
all  the  laws,  let  me  not  be  understood  as  saying  there 
are  no  bad  laws,  or  that  grievances  may  not  arise  for 
the  redress  of  which  no  legal  provisions  have  been 
made.  I  mean  to  say  no  such  thing.  But  I  do  mean 
to  say  that  although  bad  laws,  if  they  exist,  should 
be  repealed  as  soon  as  possible,  still,  while  they  con 
tinue  in  force,  for  the  sake  of  example  they  should  be 
religiously  observed.  So  also  in  unprovided  cases.  If 
such  arise,  let  proper  legal  provisions  be  made  for  them 
with  the  least  possible  delay,  but  till  then  let  them, 
if  not  too  intolerable,  be  borne  with. 

" There  is  no  grievance  that  is  a  fit  object  of  redress 
by  mob  law.  In  any  case  that  may  arise,  as,  for  in 
stance,  the  promulgation  of  abolitionism,  one  of  two 
positions  is  necessarily  true — that  is,  the  thing  is  right 
within  itself,  and  therefore  deserves  the  protection  of 
all  law  and  all  good  citizens,  or  it  is  wrong,  and  there 
fore  proper  to  be  prohibited  by  legal  enactments;  and 
in  neither  case  is  the  interposition  of  mob  law  either 
necessary,  justifiable,  or  excusable. 

1 1  But  those  histories  (scenes  of  American  Revolution) 
are  gone.  They  can  be  read  no  more  forever.  They 
were  a  fortress  of  strength;  but  what  invading  foeman 


180  THE  VOICE   OF   LINCOLN 

could  never  do,  the  silent  artillery  of  time  has  done— 
the  levelling  of  its  walls.  They  are  gone.  They  were 
a  forest  of  giant  oaks;  but  the  all-resistless  hurricane 
has  swept  over  them,  and  left  only  here  and  there  a 
lonely  trunk,  despoiled  of  its  verdure,  shorn  of  its 
foliage,  unshading  and  unshaded,  to  murmur  in  a  few 
more  gentle  breezes,  and  to  combat  with  its  mutilated 
limbs  a  few  more  ruder  storms,  then  to  sink  and  be 
no  more. 

"They  were  pillars  of  the  temple  of  liberty;  and  now 
that  they  have  crumbled  away  that  temple  must  fall 
unless  we,  their  descendants,  supply  their  places  with 
other  pillars,  hewn  from  the  solid  quarry  of  sober 
reason.  Passion  has  helped  us,  but  can  do  so  no  more. 
It  will  in  future  be  our  enemy.  Reason — cold,  calcu 
lating,  unimpassioned  reason — must  furnish  all  the 
materials  for  our  future  support  and  defense.  Let 
those  materials  be  molded  into  general  intelligence, 
sound  morality,  and,  in  particular,  a  reverence  for  the 
Constitution  and  laws;  and  that  we  improved  to  the 
last,  that  we  remained  free  to  the  last,  that  we  revered 
his  name  to  the  last,  that  during  his  long  sleep  we  per 
mitted  no  hostile  foot  to  pass  over  or  desecrate  his 
resting-place,  shall  be  that  which  to  learn  the  last 
trump  shall  awaken  our  Washington. 

"Upon  these  let  the  proud  fabric  of  freedom  rest, 
as  the  rock  of  its  basis;  and  as  truly  as  has  been  said 
of  the  only  greater  institution,  'the  gates  of  hell  shall 
not  prevail  against  it." 

We  have  seen  this  prophet  at  seventeen  writing 
about  "the  necessity  of  preserving  our  Constitution 
and  perpetuating  the  Union";  at  twenty-eight  we  hear 
him  speaking  on: 

"Whenever  the  vicious  portion  of  population  shall 


LINCOLN   ON  GOVERNMENT  181 

be  permitted  to  gather  in  bands  of  hundreds  and  thou 
sands,  and  burn  churches,  ravage  and  rob  provision- 
stores,  throw  printing-presses  into  rivers,  shoot  editors, 
and  hang  and  burn  obnoxious  persons  at  pleasure  and 
with  impunity,  depend  on  it,  this  government  cannot 
last/' 

Again  he  says: 

"'How  shall  we  fortify  against  it?'  The  answer  is 
simple.  Let  every  American,  every  lover  of  liberty, 
every  well-wisher  to  his  posterity  swear  by  the  blood 
of  the  Revolution  never  to  violate  in  the  least  particu 
lar  the  laws  of  the  country,  and  never  to  tolerate  their 
violation  by  others.  As  the  patriots  of  seventy-six  did 
to  the  support  of  the  Declaration  of  Independence,  so 
to  the  support  of  the  Constitution  and  laws  let  every 
American  pledge  his  life,  his  property,  and  his  sacred 
honor — let  every  man  remember  that  to  violate  the 
law  is  to  trample  on  the  blood  of  his  father,  and  to 
tear  the  charter  of  his  own  and  his  children's  liberty. 
Let  reverence  for  the  laws  be  breathed  by  every  Ameri 
can  mother  to  the  lisping  babe  that  prattles  on  her  lap ; 
let  it  be  taught  in  schools,  in  seminaries,  and  in  col 
leges;  let  it  be  written  in  primers,  spelling-books,  and 
in  almanacs;  let  it  be  preached  from  the  pulpit,  pro 
claimed  in  legislative  halls,  and  enforced  in  courts  of 
justice." 

Again  he  says: 

u  There  is  no  grievance  that  is  a  fit  object  of  redress 
by  mob  law." 

These  political  proverbs,  primary  principles  of  effi 
cient  government,  are  as  applicable  to-day  as  they  were 
in  1837,  when  Lincoln  uttered  them. 

This  speech  may  serve  as  a  model  for  young  America 
in  the  preparation  of  a  composition  or  oration  upon 


182  THE  VOICE  OF  LINCOLN 

law  and  order,  a  subject  of  unusual  interest  and  im 
portance  in  this  twentieth  century,  and  at  no  time 
more  than  to-day. 

Without  law  and  order  all  nature  must  return  to 
chaos  and  all  government  to  anarchy.  There  is  no 
alternative. 

We  need  more  of  leadership  to-day  along  these  Lin 
coln  lines  of  law  and  order;  more  of  the  accomplish 
ment  of  needful  change  in  our  social  and  industrial  life, 
but  through  the  regular  and  orderly  constitutional  or 
statutory  channels. 

The  deserved  dissolution  and  death  of  the  Whig 
party  in  the  early  fifties  provided  the  occasion  and 
necessity  for  the  organization  of  the  new  Republican 
party. 

In  this  political  organization  there  were  sundry  and 
divers  elements,  varying  from  those  that  were  exceed 
ingly  conservative  to  those  that  were  extremely  radical. 

Abolitionism,  as  it  was  then  known,  and  with  which 
Herndon,  Lincoln's  partner,  was  more  or  less  identi 
fied,  was  reaching  out  to  control  the  new  party.  Hern 
don  himself  says: 

"We  recommended  the  employment  of  any  means, 
however  desperate,  to  promote  and  defend  the  cause 
of  freedom.  At  one  of  these  meetings  Lincoln  was 
called  on  for  a  speech.  He  responded  to  the  request, 
counselling  moderation  and  less  bitterness  in  dealing 
with  the  situation  before  us.  We  were  belligerent  in 
tone,  and  clearly  out  of  patience  with  the  Government. 
Lincoln  opposed  the  notion  of  coercive  measures  with 
the  possibility  of  resulting  bloodshed,  advising  us  to 
eschew  resort  to  the  bullet.  '  You  can  better  succeed/ 
he  declared,  '  with  the  ballot.  You  can  peaceably  then 
redeem  the  Government  and  preserve  the  liberties  of 


LINCOLN   ON  GOVERNMENT  183 

mankind  through  your  votes  and  voice  and  moral  in 
fluence.  .  .  .  Let  there  be  peace.  Revolutionize 
through  the  ballot  box,  and  restore  the  Government 
once  more  to  the  affections  and  hearts  of  men  by  mak 
ing  it  express,  as  it  was  intended  to  do,  the  highest 
spirit  of  justice  and  liberty.  Your  attempt,  if  there 
be  such,  to  resist  the  laws  of  Kansas  by  force  is  criminal 
and  wicked;  and  all  your  feeble  attempts  will  be  fol 
lies  and  end  in  bringing  sorrow  on  your  heads  and  ruin 
the  cause  you  would  freely  die  to  preserve ! ' ' 

A  sentiment  more  sound  and  salutary  in  the  social, 
industrial,  and  political  councils  of  the  nation  to-day 
could  scarcely  be  found. 

The  violent  outbreaks  in  that  day,  1855,  were  not 
unlike  those  that  we  find  to-day  in  the  unrest,  disorder, 
and  violence  through  I.  W.  W.,  the  use  of  bomb  and 
dynamite  in  labor  strikes,  and  the  picketing  of  the 
White  House  by  overzealous  suffragists. 

It  would  be  impossible  to  exaggerate  the  importance 
of  the  training  and  discipline  afforded  Lincoln  by  his 
service  in  the  legislature  of  Illinois  for  four  terms,  his 
service  as  a  lawyer  at  a  most  active  and  able  bar  for 
twenty-four  years,  his  service  in  Congress  for  one  term, 
all  the  while  giving  special  study  from  the  point  of 
personal  predilection  to  the  subject  of  government,  as 
a  case  of  first  impression  and  as  a  study  in  original 
philosophy.  His  great  speeches  teem  with  the  basic 
principles  of  constitutional  government  as  declared  in 
the  handiwork  of  Thomas  Jefferson,  the  Declaration  of 
Independence. 

To  most  of  us  government  is  a  sort  of  vague  abstrac 
tion.  We  lack  definite  ideas  and  clearness  of  concep 
tion  as  to  just  what  government  is.  I  think  of  it  as 
the  old  grist-mill  along  the  little  river.  As  it  took 


184  THE  VOICE  OF   LINCOLN 

power  to  run  that  mill,  so  it  takes  power  to  run  gov 
ernment.  It  matters  not  whether  the  power  be  water 
power,  electric  power,  or  what-not,  it  still  takes  power 
to  run  the  mill  and  grind  the  grist. 

So  in  government.  It  may  be  government  by  "  con 
sent  of  the  governed,"  it  may  be  government  by  a 
kaiser,  king,  or  sultan,  it  may  be  government  by  oli 
garchy  or  aristocracy  of  wealth,  or  royalty;  but  with 
us  here,  as  sons  and  daughters  of  Uncle  Sam,  it  is  all 
boiled  down  to  the  proposition  that  "all  political  power 
is  inherent  in  the  people,"  and  that  the  power  of  the 
American  government  is  first,  last,  and  all  the  time  in 
the  hands,  heads,  and  hearts  of  our  American  citizens. 

We  believe  that  the  aggregate  judgment  of  all  the 
people  is  better  than  the  individual  judgment  of  any 
one  of  the  people. 

Now,  this  people's  power  furnishes  the  water  or 
electricity,  steam,  or  what-not  to  run  the  government 
machinery  and  operates  upon  the  departments,  the 
officers,  and  the  general  routine,  all  for  what  purpose? 
In  short,  what,  after  all,  are  the  purposes  of  government. 

The  constitutional  fathers  in  1787  made  some  gen 
eralizations  upon  this  subject  in  the  preamble  of  the 
Constitution,  which,  however,  has  been  held  by  the 
Supreme  Court  of  the  United  States  not  to  be  any 
part  of  that  document. 

The  preamble  reads: 

"We,  the  people,  in  order  to  form  a  more  perfect 
union,  establish  justice,  insure  domestic  tranquillity, 
provide  for  the  common  defense,  promote  the  general 
welfare,  and  secure  the  blessings  of  liberty  to  ourselves 
and  our  posterity,  do  establish  and  ordain  this  con 
stitution  for  the  United  States  of  America." 

"Glittering  generalities"  are  too  frequently  only  an- 


LINCOLN  ON  GOVERNMENT  185 

other  name  for  political  " phantasmagoria."  They 
vaguely  cover  such  a  vast  field  that  in  particular  they 
cover  nothing. 

Abraham  Lincoln,  in  his  own  simple,  strong  speech, 
puts  the  purposes  of  our  government  into  the  following 
language : 

"This  is  essentially  a  people's  contest.  ...  It  is  a 
struggle  for  maintaining  in  the  world  that  form  and 
substance  of  government  whose  leading  object  is  to 
elevate  the  condition  of  men — to  lift  artificial  weights 
from  the  shoulders,  to  clear  the  paths  of  laudable  pur 
suits  for  all,  to  afford  all  an  unfettered  start  and  a  fair 
chance  in  the  race  of  life.  Yielding  to  partisan  and 
temporary  departure  from  necessity,  this,  after  all,  is 
the  leading  object  of  the  government  for  whose  exist 
ence  we  contend." 

In  my  judgment  this  is  the  biggest  and  best  con 
ception  of  American  democracy  ever  put  into  the 
English  language,  and  it  took  the  biggest  and  best 
democratic  American  of  his  own  time  or  any  other  to 
put  these  paramount  purposes  in  such  plain,  practical 
phrase. 

"To  elevate  the  condition  of  men." 
"To  lift  artificial  weights  from  the  shoulders." 
"To  clear  the  paths  of  laudable  pursuits  for  all." 
"To  afford  all  an  unfettered  start  and  a  fair  chance 
in  the  race  of  life." 

These  four  phrases  spell  humanity,  and  Lincoln  for 
ever  makes  them  the  definition  of  our  American  democ 
racy. 

In  a  word  it  means  that  with  Lincoln,  democracy 
was  synonymous  with  humanity.  He  thought,  he 
talked,  he  labored,  and  lived, — yes,  he  died,  as  the 
one,  composite,  universal,  representative  man. 


186  THE  VOICE  OF  LINCOLN 

These  words  of  Lincoln  should  be  written  in  every 
public  forum,  in  every  school  and  college  in  the  land. 
They  should  be  familiar  at  every  fireside  and  their 
substance  and  spirit  should  inspire  and  guide  every 
public  officer  in  the  discharge  of  his  public  duties. 

In  some  strange  way  these  immortal  basic  thoughts 
of  Lincoln  have  been  much  overlooked.  Of  all  his 
great  sayings  which  future  generations  will  treasure, 
at  every  human  hearthstone  and  every  forum  for  free 
dom,  these  words,  part  of  his  official  message  to  the 
Congress  of  the  United  States,  will  stand  out  among 
the  most  immortal  of  all  his  immortality. 

Lincoln  always  had  an  abiding  faith  in  the  general 
judgment  of  the  common  people.  He  once  said: 

"Our  government  rests  on  public  opinion.  Who 
ever  can  change  public  opinion  can  change  the  govern 
ment  practically  just  so  much." 

In  the  first  Lincoln-Douglas  debate  at  Ottawa  Lin 
coln  said: 

"In  this  and  like  communities,  public  sentiment  is 
everything.  With  public  sentiment,  nothing  can  fail; 
without  it  nothing  can  succeed.  Consequently,  he 
who  moulds  public  sentiment,  goes  deeper  than  he  who 
enacts  statutes  or  pronounces  decisions.  He  makes 
statutes  and  decisions  possible  or  impossible  to  be 
executed." 

In  his  first  inaugural  address  he  used  this  language: 

"Why  should  there  not  be  a  patient  confidence  in 
the  ultimate  justice  of  the  people?  Is  there  any  bet 
ter  or  equal  hope  in  the  world  ?  .  .  .  By  the  frame  of 
the  government  under  which  we  live,  this  same  people 
have  wisely  given  their  public  servants  but  little  power 
for  mischief,  and  have  with  equal  wisdom  provided  for 
the  return  of  that  little  to  their  own  hands  at  very 


LINCOLN  ON  GOVERNMENT  187 

short  intervals.  While  the  people  retain  their  virtue 
and  vigilance,  no  administration,  by  any  extreme 
wickedness  or  folly,  can  very  seriously  injure  the  gov 
ernment  in  the  short  space  of  four  years." 


CHAPTER  XIV 
LINCOLN  ON  SLAVERY 

MUCH  has  been  spoken  and  still  more  written  as  to 
Mr.  Lincoln's  position  on  slavery  from  the  time  of  his 
boyhood  to  the  day  of  his  martyrdom. 

A  review  of  what  Lincoln  himself  has  said  on  the 
matter,  what  Lincoln  himself  has  done,  and  why  he 
did  it,  would  seem  relevant  here. 

Some  of  his  biographers  have  earnestly  attempted  to 
give  his  childhood  mind  a  bent  against  slavery  due 
to  parental  inheritance,  especially  through  the  father, 
Thomas  Lincoln. 

These  biographers  assign  hatred  of  slavery  as  a 
reason  for  Thomas  Lincoln's  removal  from  the  slave 
soil  of  Kentucky  to  the  free  soil  of  Indiana. 

Notwithstanding  this  highly  creditable  theory,  it  is 
wholly  unsupported  by  fact.  He  moved,  as  many 
another  man  moved,  because  it  looked  better  on  the 
other  side  of  the  fence,  in  the  next  county,  in  the  next 
State. 

It  is  altogether  unlikely  that  any  hatred  of  slavery 
in  Kentucky  would  be  silenced  by  the  free  soil  of  In 
diana  and  Illinois,  and  we  hear  nothing  of  Thomas 
Lincoln  either  favorably  for  freedom  or  for  his  rising 
son  during  all  his  political  and  legal  contests. 

The  first  contact  Lincoln  had  with  slavery  in  the 
concrete,  as  agreed  by  a  number  of  his  more  reliable 
biographers,  was  on  a  trip  he  made  to  New  Orleans 
for  Denton  Offut. 

John  Hanks,   his  cousin,   and  John  Johnston,  his 

188 


LINCOLN  ON   SLAVERY  189 

stepbrother,  with  Lincoln,  constructed  a  boat  and 
launched  it  within  four  weeks,  for  a  trip  down  the 
Mississippi.  After  disposing  of  Offut's  cargo  at  New 
Orleans  they  viewed  the  sights  of  the  Crescent  City, 
and  Lincoln  for  the  first  time  saw  "  negroes  in  chains- 
whipped  and  scourged. " 

The  following  account  is  given  by  Herndon  in  his 
life  of  Lincoln. 

"One  morning  in  their  rambles  over  the  city  the 
trio  passed  a  slave  auction.  A  vigorous  and  comely 
mulatto  girl  was  being  sold.  She  underwent  a  thor 
ough  examination  at  the  hands  of  the  bidders;  they 
pinched  her  flesh  and  made  her  trot  up  and  down  the 
room  like  a  horse,  to  show  how  she  moved,  and  in 
order,  as  the  auctioneer  said,  that  'bidders  might  sat 
isfy  themselves '  whether  the  article  they  were  offering 
to  buy  was  sound  or  not.  The  whole  thing  was  so 
revolting  that  Lincoln  moved  away  from  the  scene 
with  a  deep  feeling  of  'unconquerable  hate.'  Bidding 
his  companions  follow  him  he  said,  '  By  God,  boys,  let's 
get  away  from  this.  If  ever  I  get  a  chance  to  hit  that 
thing  (meaning  slavery),  I'll  hit  it  hard." 

Herndon  relates,  the  incident  was  given  to  him  in 
1865  by  John  Hanks.  Herndon  also  relates  that  he 
himself  had  heard  Lincoln  refer  to  the  same  incident 
himself.  This  is  confirmed  by  several  other  biogra 
phers.  At  this  time  Lincoln  was  twenty-two  years  of 
age. 

The  next  time  slavery  was  brought  to  his  attention 
was  when  he  was  a  member  of  the  State  Legislature  at 
Springfield,  six  years  after  his  visit  to  New  Orleans. 
The  abolitionist  had  taken  his  westward  way,  and 
New  England  seed  had  settled  in  the  soil  of  Illinois. 
The  majority  of  the  State  Legislature,  however,  greatly 


190  THE  VOICE   OF   LINCOLN 

deprecated  the  agitation  against  slavery,  and  as  ex 
pressing  such  deprecation  the  following  resolution 
was  passed: 

"Resolved  by  the  General  Assembly  of  the  State  of 
Illinois:  That  we  highly  disapprove  of  the  formation 
of  Abolition  societies  and  of  the  doctrines  promulgated 
by  them, 

"That  the  right  of  property  in  slaves  is  sacred  to 
the  slave-holding  States  by  the  Federal  Constitution, 
and  that  they  cannot  be  deprived  of  that  right  with 
out  their  consent, 

"That  the  General  Government  cannot  abolish 
slavery  in  the  District  of  Columbia  against  the  con 
sent  of  the  citizens  of  said  District,  without  a  manifest 
breach  of  good  faith, 

"That  the  Governor  be  requested  to  transmit  to 
the  States  of  Virginia,  Alabama,  Mississippi,  New 
York,  and  Connecticut,  a  copy  of  the  foregoing  report 
and  resolutions." 

Thereafter,  Lincoln  endeavored  to  marshal  the 
minority  in  support  of  a  resolution  of  protest  against 
these  pro-slavery  resolutions.  He  was  unable  to  find 
any  one  save  Dan  Stone  to  join  him  in  presenting  the 
minority  resolutions. 

Lincoln's  protest  read  as  follows: 

"Resolutions  upon  the  subject  of  domestic  slavery 
having  passed  both  branches  of  the  General  Assembly 
at  its  present  session,  the  undersigned  hereby  protest 
against  the  passage  of  the  same. 

"They  believe  that  the  institution  of  slavery  is 
founded  on  both  injustice  and  bad  policy,  but  that 
the  promulgation  of  abolition  doctrines  tends  rather 
to  increase  than  abate  its  evils. 


LINCOLN   ON   SLAVERY  191 

"They  believe  that  the  Congress  of  the  United 
States  has  no  power  under  the  Constitution  to  inter 
fere  with  the  institution  of  slavery  in  the  different 
States. 

"They  believe  that  the  Congress  of  the  United 
States  has  the  power  under  the  Constitution  to  abolish 
slavery  in  the  District  of  Columbia,  but  that  the  power 
ought  not  to  be  exercised  unless  at  the  request  of  the 
people  of  the  District. 

"The  difference  between  these  opinions  and  those 
contained  in  the  above  resolutions  is  their  reason  for 
entering  this  protest. 

"DAN  STONE, 

"A.  LINCOLN, 
"Representatives  from  the  county  of  Sangamon." 

Holland  speaks  of  Mr.  Lincoln's  record  on  the  slav 
ery  question,  while  a  member  of  Congress,  as  follows: 

"Mr.  Lincoln  carried  into  this  session  the  anti- 
slavery  record  of  an  anti-slavery  whig.  He  had  voted 
forty-two  times  for  the  Wilmot  Proviso,  had  stood 
firmly  by  John  Quincy  Adams  and  Joshua  R.  Giddings 
on  the  right  of  petition,  and  was  recognized  as  a  man 
who  would  do  as  much  in  opposition  to  slavery  as  his 
constitutional  obligations  would  permit  him  to  do." 

It  will  be  remembered  that  Lincoln  himself  had  in 
troduced  the  "Spot  Resolutions,"  quoted  in  a  previous 
chapter,  and  also  had  made  a  speech  upon  the  "un 
constitutional  and  unjustifiable"  commencement  of 
the  Mexican  War,  which  he  believed  to  be  simply  an 
attempt  for  the  further  extension  of  slavery.  But 
Lincoln  had,  as  a  congressman,  taken  an  oath  to  sup 
port  the  Constitution  of  the  United  States. 

To  a  man  of  Lincoln's  high  sense  of  honor  and  his 


192  THE  VOICE  OF  LINCOLN 

conception  of  a  conscientious  constitutional  duty,  the 
taking  of  this  oath  was  not  a  light  or  trifling  thing,  and 
in  his  recognition  of  this  obligation  he  felt  it  his  duty 
to  protect  the  slaveholder  in  his  constitutional  rights, 
as  well  as  the  non-slaveholder  in  his  constitutional 
rights. 

While  engaged  in  the  practice  of  law,  he  not  unfre- 
quently  was  retained  by  the  slave-owner  to  prosecute 
or  defend  an  action  in  which  the  right  of  property  in 
a  slave  was  involved.  A  noted  case  was  that  in  which 
he  was  employed  by  General  Madison,  of  Bourbon 
County,  Kentucky,  who  had  brought  five  or  six  negroes 
into  Coles  County,  Illinois,  and  worked  them  on  a 
farm  for  two  or  three  years. 

He  presented  simply  the  legal  side  of  the  case  with 
out  sentiment  or  enthusiasm.  The  Supreme  Court  de 
cided  against  him,  but  Lincoln  believed  that  under  the 
Constitution  and  the  acts  of  Congress  the  slaveholder 
had  an  undoubted  right  to  be  protected  as  to  his  prop 
erty  in  the  slave. 

In  his  speech  in  Chicago,  delivered  July  10,  1858, 
Mr.  Lincoln  said: 

"I  have  said  a  hundred  times,  and  I  have  now  no 
inclination  to  take  it  back,  that  I  believe  there  is  no 
right,  and  ought  to  be  no  inclination,  in  the  people  of 
the  Free  States  to  enter  into  the  Slave  States,  and  in 
terfere  with  the  question  of  slavery  at  all." 

Further  on  in  that  speech  he  says: 

"While  we  agree  that,  by  the  Constitution  we  as 
sented  to,  in  the  States  where  it  exists,  we  have  no 
right  to  interfere  with  it,  because  it  is  in  the  Consti 
tution;  and  we  are  by  both  duty  and  inclination  to 
stick  by  that  Constitution,  in  all  its  letter  and  spirit, 
from  beginning  to  end." 


LINCOLN   ON   SLAVERY  193 

It  was  in  this  speech  that  he  made  apt  answer  to 
the  charge  made  against  him  by  Douglas  that  he 
favored  an  entire  equality  between  black  and  white,  as 
follows : 

"I  protest,  now  and  forever,  against  that  counter 
feit  logic  which  presumes  that  because  I  did  not  want 
a  negro  woman  for  a  slave,  I  do  necessarily  want  her 
for  a  wife.  My  understanding  is  that  I  need  not  have 
her  for  either,  but,  as  God  made  us  separate,  we  can 
leave  one  another  alone,  and  do  one  another  much 
good  thereby.'7 

In  his  first  debate  with  Douglas  at  Ottawa,  he  quotes 
from  his  Peoria  speech  delivered  four  years  before: 

"I  think,  and  shall  try  to  show  that  it  (the  repeal  of 
the  Missouri  Compromise  and  the  enactment  of  the 
Kansas  and  Nebraska  Bill)  is  wrong, — wrong  in  its 
direct  effect,  letting  slavery  into  Kansas  and  Nebraska, 
and  wrong  in  its  prospective  principle,  allowing  it  to 
spread  to  every  other  part  of  the  wide  world  where 
men  can  be  found  inclined  to  take  it. 

"This  declared  indifference,  but,  as  I  must  think, 
covert  real  zeal  for  the  spread  of  slavery,  I  cannot  but 
hate.  I  hate  it  because  of  the  monstrous  injustice  of 
slavery  itself.  I  hate  it  because  it  deprives  our  repub 
lican  example  of  its  just  influence  in  the  world, — enables 
the  enemies  of  free  institutions,  with  plausibility,  to 
taunt  us  as  hypocrites;  causes  the  real  friends  of  free 
dom  to  doubt  our  sincerity,  and  especially  because  it 
forces  so  many  really  good  men  amongst  ourselves  into 
an  open  war  with  the  very  fundamental  principles  of 
civil  liberty, — criticising  the  Declaration  of  Indepen 
dence,  and  insisting  that  there  is  no  right  principle  of 
action  but  self-interest.  .  .  . 

"When  they  [the  slaveholders]  remind  us  of  their 


194  THE  VOICE  OF  LINCOLN 

constitutional  rights,  I  acknowledge  them,  not  grudg 
ingly,  but  fully  and  fairly;  and  I  would  give  them  any 
legislation  for  the  reclaiming  of  their  fugitives  which 
should  not,  in  its  stringency,  be  more  likely  to  carry  a 
free  man  into  slavery,  than  our  ordinary  criminal  laws 
are  to  hang  an  innocent  one." 

This  doctrine  was  expressed  by  him  again  and  again 
in  a  number  of  speeches  before  the  debates  and  through 
out  the  debates. 

I  know  some  will  be  surprised  at  Lincoln's  position 
at  this  time,  but  I  am  quite  sure  that  in  the  painting 
of  this  political  portrait  of  him  he  would  answer,  much 
as  Cromwell  did  to  the  great  artist  who  was  paint 
ing  his  picture  in  oil.  The  artist  suggested  the  elimi 
nation  of  a  wart  on  the  great  Crom well's  face.  "No," 
said  Cromwell,  " paint  me  as  I  am." 

In  view  of  his  position  on  the  fugitive  slave  law  Wen 
dell  Phillips  often  referred  to  Lincoln  as  the  "  Slave 
Hound  of  Illinois,"  and  was  much  opposed  to  his  nom 
ination  for  the  presidency  of  the  United  States. 

Mr.  Lincoln,  after  his  election  as  President,  stopped 
at  Cincinnati  on  his  way  to  Washington.  In  the 
Queen  City  he  made  a  short  speech  in  which  he  said, 
among  other  things: 

"You  [Kentuckians]  will  want  to  know  what  we 
will  do  with  you.  We  mean  to  treat  you  as  near  as 
we  possibly  can  as  Washington,  Jefferson  and  Madison 
treated  you.  We  mean  to  leave  you  alone  and  in  no 
way  to  interfere  with  your  institutions,  to  abide  by  all 
and  every  compromise  of  the  Constitution." 

In  the  first  inaugural  address,  March  4,  1861,  Lin 
coln  said: 

"I  do  but  quote  from  one  of  those  speeches,  when  I 
declare  that  'I  have  no  purpose,  directly  or  indirectly, 
to  interfere  with  the  institution  of  slavery  in  the  states 


LINCOLN  ON  SLAVERY  195 

where  it  exists/  I  believe  I  have  no  lawful  right  to 
do  so;  and  I  have  no  inclination  to  do  so.  Those  who 
nominated  and  elected  me  did  so  with  the  full  knowl 
edge  that  I  had  made  this,  and  made  many  similar 
declarations,  and  had  never  recanted  them." 

And  then  he  quotes  one  of  the  planks  of  the  Repub 
lican  National  platform  as  follows: 

"Resolved,  That  the  maintenance  inviolate  of  the 
rights  of  the  states,  and  especially  the  right  of  each 
state  to  order  and  control  its  own  domestic  institutions 
according  to  its  own  judgment  exclusively,  is  essential 
to  that  balance  of  power  on  which  the  perfection  and 
endurance  of  our  political  fabric  depend.  .  .  ." 

Lincoln  further  said: 

"  There  is  much  controversy  about  the  delivering 
up  of  fugitives  from  service  or  labor.  The  clause  I 
now  read  is  as  plainly  written  in  the  Constitution  as 
any  other  of  its  provisions: 

"'No  person  held  to  service  or  labor  in  one  state 
under  the  laws  thereof,  escaping  into  another,  shall, 
in  consequence  of  any  law  or  regulation  therein,  be 
discharged  from  such  service  or  labor,  but  shall  be  de 
livered  up  on  claim  of  the  party  to  whom  such  service 
or  labor  may  be  due." 

Commenting  on  this  provision  of  the  Constitution, 
Lincoln  said  in  that  same  inaugural  address: 

"It  is  scarcely  questioned  that  this  provision  was 
intended  by  those  who  made  it  for  the  reclaiming  of 
what  we  call  fugitive  slaves;  and  the  intention  of  the 
lawgiver  is  the  law. 

"All  members  of  Congress  swear  their  support  to 
the  whole  Constitution — to  this  provision  as  well  as 
any  other.  To  the  proposition,  then,  that  slaves 
whose  cases  come  within  the  terms  of  this  clause  '  shall 
be  delivered  up/  their  oaths  are  unanimous.'7 


196  THE  VOICE   OF  LINCOLN 

Shortly  after  the  opening  of  the  great  Civil  War  the 
agitation  began  in  various  quarters  of  the  republic  to 
emancipate  the  slaves. 

General  Fremont's  attitude  upon  this  question  in 
Missouri  and  General  Hunter's  in  the  South  had  very 
greatly  embarrassed  the  President,  and  their  orders  of 
partial  emancipation  had  to  be  reversed,  which  caused 
a  fresh  outbreak  for  emancipation  in  many  sections  of 
the  country. 

Delegation  after  delegation  called  on  the  President 
urging  emancipation.  It  is  a  well-known  fact  that 
Lincoln  was  all  the  while  in  favor  of  a  gradual  emanci 
pation  with  compensation.  Congress,  however,  and 
the  South,  also,  was  against  his  plan,  and  still  the  aboli 
tion  sentiment  grew. 

It  will  be  remembered  that  Horace  Greeley,  who  for 
some  years  had  been  a  thorn  in  the  flesh  of  Mr.  Lin 
coln,  finally  came  out  in  an  article  in  the  New  York 
Tribune,  then  probably  the  most  largely  circulated  and 
most  influential  newspaper  in  the  United  States,  in 
which  he  very  severely  criticised,  and  even  castigated, 
President  Lincoln  for  his  failure  to  act  summarily  in 
the  emancipation  of  the  slave. 

In  the  summer  of  1862  Mr.  Lincoln  made  the  first 
draft  of  the  Emancipation  Proclamation,  and  that 
without  consulting  his  Cabinet. 

It  is  worthy  of  suggestion  here  that  that  draft  had 
been  made  before  the  letter  to  Greeley. 

About  the  1st  of  August  the  Proclamation  was 
submitted  to  a  Cabinet  meeting.  It  is  needless  to  say 
that  members  of  the  Cabinet  were  much  surprised. 

Holland,  relates  the  circumstances  as  follows: 

"Mr.  Lincoln  had  before  him  a  document  which 
he  knew  was  to  perpetuate  his  name  to  all  futurity, — 


LINCOLN  ON   SLAVERY  197 

a  document  which  involved  the  liberty  of  four  millions 
of  human  beings  then  living,  and  of  untold  millions 
then  unborn, — which  changed  the  policy  of  the  govern 
ment  and  the  course  and  character  of  the  war, — which 
revolutionized  the  social  institutions  of  more  than  a 
third  of  the  nation, — which  brought  all  the  govern 
ments  of  Christendom  into  new  relations  to  the  re 
bellion,  and  which  involved  Mr.  Lincoln's  recognition 
of  the  will  of  the  Divine  Ruler  of  the  universe.  It  was 
the  supreme  moment  of  his  life." 

Numerous  suggestions  by  way  of  changes  were  made, 
some  as  to  one  thing,  and  some  as  to  another.  Finally 
Seward  said: 

"Mr.  President,  I  approve  of  the  proclamation,  but 
I  question  the  expediency  of  its  issue  at  this  juncture. 
The  depression  of  the  public  mind  consequent  upon 
our  repeated  reverses  is  so  great  that  I  fear  the  effect 
of  so  important  a  step.  It  may  be  viewed  as  the  last 
measure  of  an  exhausted  government — a  cry  for  help 
—the  government  stretching  forth  its  hands  to 
Ethiopia,  instead  of  Ethiopia  stretching  forth  her 
hands  to  the  government — our  last  shriek  on  the  re 
treat." 

Finally  it  was  agreed,  upon  the  suggestion  of  Seward, 
that  the  matter  go  over  until  a  more  favorable  situa 
tion  as  to  the  nation's  prospect  of  victory. 

Then  came  the  battle  of  Antietam,  and  while  not 
a  decisive  victory,  it  was  regarded  as  a  repulse  to  the 
South.  Lincoln  immediately  made  his  second  draft, 
called  a  meeting  of  the  Cabinet,  and  finally  said  to  his 
confidential  official  family  in  a  low  and  reverent  tone: 
"I  have  promised  my  God  that  I  will  do  it." 

Chase  thereupon  said : 

"Did  I  understand  you  correctly,  Mr.  President?" 


198  THE  VOICE   OF  LINCOLN 

Lincoln  replied : 

"I  made  a  solemn  vow  before  God  that,  if  General 
Lee  should  be  driven  back  from  Pennsylvania,  I  would 
crown  the  result  by  the  declaration  of  freedom  to  the 
slaves. " 

This  Emancipation  Proclamation  is  surely  worthy 
of  a  place  among  these  pages: 

"I,  ABRAHAM  LINCOLN,  President  of  the  United 
States  of  America,  and  Commander-in-Chief  of  the 
army  and  navy  thereof,  do  hereby  proclaim  and  de 
clare  that  hereafter,  as  heretofore,  the  war  will  be 
prosecuted  for  the  object  of  practically  restoring  the 
constitutional  relation  between  the  United  States  and 
each  of  the  states,  and  the  people  thereof,  in  which 
states  that  relation  is  or  may  be  suspended  or  dis 
turbed. 

"That  is  my  purpose,  upon  the  next  meeting  of 
Congress,  to  again  recommend  the  adoption  of  a  prac 
tical  measure  tendering  pecuniary  aid  to  the  free  ac 
ceptance  or  rejection  of  all  slave  states  so-called,  the 
people  whereof  may  not  then  be  in  rebellion  against 
the  United  States,  and  which  states  may  then  have 
voluntarily  adopted,  or  thereafter  may  voluntarily 
adopt,  immediate  or  gradual  abolishment  of  slavery 
within  their  respective  limits;  and  that  the  effort  to 
colonize  persons  of  African  descent,  with  their  consent, 
upon  this  continent  or  elsewhere,  with  the  previously 
obtained  consent  of  the  governments  existing  there, 
will  be  continued. 

"That  on  the  first  day  of  January,  in  the  year  of 
our  Lord  one  thousand  eight  hundred  and  sixty-three, 
all  persons  held  as  slaves  within  any  state,  or  desig 
nated  part  of  a  state,  the  people  whereof  shall  then 


LINCOLN   ON   SLAVERY  199 

be  in  rebellion  against  the  United  States,  shall  be  then, 
thenceforward,  and  forever  free;  and  the  Executive 
Government  of  the  United  States,  including  the  mili 
tary  and  naval  authority  thereof,  will  recognize  and 
maintain  the  freedom  of  such  persons,  and  will  do  no 
act  or  acts  to  repress  such  persons,  or  any  of  them,  in 
any  efforts  they  may  make  for  their  actual  freedom. 

"That  the  Executive  will,  on  the  first  day  of  January 
aforesaid,  by  proclamation,  designate  the  states  and 
parts  of  states,  if  any,  in  which  the  people  thereof  re 
spectively  shall  then  be  in  rebellion  against  the  United 
States ;  and  the  fact  that  any  state,  or  the  people  there 
of,  shall  on  that  day  be  in  good  faith  represented  in 
the  Congress  of  the  United  States,  by  members  chosen 
thereto  at  elections  wherein  a  majority  of  the  qualified 
voters  of  such  state  shall  have  participated,  shall,  in 
the  absence  of  strong  countervailing  testimony,  be 
deemed  conclusive  evidence  that  such  state,  and  the 
people  thereof,  are  not  then  in  rebellion  against  the 
United  States. 

"That  attention  is  hereby  called  to  an  act  of  Con 
gress  entitled  'An  Act  to  make  an  additional  Article 
of  War/  approved  March  13th,  1862,  and  which  act 
is  in  the  words  and  figures  following: 

"'Be  it  enacted  by  the  Senate  and  House  of  Repre 
sentatives  of  the  United  States  of  America  in  Congress 
assembled,  That  hereafter  the  following  shall  be  pro 
mulgated  as  an  additional  article  of  war  for  the  govern 
ment  of  the  army  of  the  United  States,  and  shall  be 
obeyed  and  observed  as  such: 

"  'ARTICLE — All  officers  or  persons  in  the  military 
or  naval  service  of  the  United  States  are  prohibited 
from  employing  any  of  the  forces  under  their  respec 
tive  commands  for  the  purpose  of  returning  fugitives 


200  THE  VOICE  OF  LINCOLN 

from  service  or  labor  who  may  have  escaped  from  any 
persons  to  whom  such  service  or  labor  is  claimed  to 
be  due,  and  any  officer  who  shall  be  found  guilty  by 
a  court-martial  of  violating  this  article  shall  be  dis 
missed  from  the  service.' 

"  'Sec.  2.  And  be  it  further  enacted,  That  this  act 
shall  take  effect  from  and  after  its  passage.' 

"Also,  to  the  ninth  and  tenth  sections  of  an  act  en 
titled  'An  Act  to  suppress  Insurrection,  to  punish 
Treason  and  Rebellion,  to  seize  and  confiscate  Property 
of  Rebels,  and  for  other  purposes,'  approved  July  16th, 
1862,  and  which  sections  are  in  the  words  and  figures 
following : 

"  'Sec.  9.  And  be  it  further  enacted,  That  all  slaves 
of  persons  who  shall  hereafter  be  engaged  in  rebellion 
against  the  government  of  the  United  States,  or  who 
shall  in  any  way  give  aid  or  comfort  thereto,  escaping 
from  such  persons  and  taking  refuge  within  the  lines 
of  the  army;  and  all  slaves  captured  from  such  persons, 
or  deserted  by  them,  and  coming  under  the  control  of 
the  government  of  the  United  States;  and  all  slaves 
of  such  persons  found  on  (or)  being  within  any  place 
occupied  by  rebel  forces  and  afterwards  occupied  by 
forces  of  the  United  States,  shall  be  deemed  captives 
of  war,  and  shall  be  forever  free  of  their  servitude, 
and  not  again  held  as  slaves. 

"'Sec.  10.  And  be  it  further  enacted,  That 
no  slave  escaping  into  any  state,  territory,  or  the  Dis 
trict  of  Columbia,  from  any  other  state,  shall  be  de 
livered  up,  or  in  any  way  impeded  or  hindered  of  his 
liberty,  except  for  crime,  or  some  offense  against  the 
laws,  unless  the  person  claiming  said  fugitive  shall 
first  make  oath  that  the  person  to  whom  the  labor  or 
service  of  such  fugitive  is  alleged  to  be  due  is  his  law- 


LINCOLN  ON  SLAVERY  201 

ful  owner,  and  has  not  borne  arms  against  the  United 
States  in  the  present  rebellion,  nor  in  any  way  given 
aid  and  comfort  thereto;  and  no  person  engaged  in 
the  military  or  naval  service  of  the  United  States  shall, 
under  any  pretense  whatever,  assume  to  decide  on 
the  validity  of  the  claim  of  any  person  to  the  service 
or  labor  of  any  other  person,  or  surrender  up  any  such 
person  to  the  claimant,  on  pain  of  being  dismissed 
from  the  service.'  ' 

"And  I  do  hereby  enjoin  upon  and  order  all  persons 
engaged  in  the  military  and  naval  service  of  the  United 
States  to  observe,  obey,  and  enforce,  within  their  re 
spective  spheres  of  service,  the  act  and  sections  above 
recited. 

"And  the  Executive  will  in  due  time  recommend 
that  all  citizens  of  the  United  States  who  shall  have 
remained  loyal  thereto  throughout  the  rebellion,  shall 
(upon  the  restoration  of  the  constitutional  relation  be 
tween  the  United  States  and  their  respective  states  and 
people,  if  that  relation  shall  have  been  suspended  or 
disturbed)  be  compensated  for  all  losses  by  acts  of  the 
United  States,  including  the  loss  of  slaves. 

"In  witness  whereof,  I  have  hereunto  set  my  hand, 
and  caused  the  seal  of  the  United  States  to  be  affixed. 
"Done  at  the  city  of  Washington,  this  tenth  day 
of  April,  in  the  year  of  our  Lord  one  thousand 
(L.  s.)      eight  hundred  and  sixty-two,  and  of  the  Inde 
pendence  of  the  United  States  the  eighty- 
seventh. 

"ABRAHAM  LINCOLN. 
"By  the  President: 
"WM.  H.  SEWARD,  Secretary  of  State." 

Subsequent  to  this  date,  in  April,  1864,  Lincoln  in  a 
personal  letter  to  Mr.  Hodges  of  Frankfort,  Kentucky, 


202  THE  VOICE  OF   LINCOLN 

gave  his  course  of  reasoning  preliminary  to  the  Eman 
cipation  Proclamation,  as  follows: 

"I  did  understand,  however,  that  very  oath  to  pre 
serve  the  Constitution  to  the  best  of  my  ability,  im 
posed  upon  me  the  duty  of  preserving,  by  every  indis 
pensable  means,  that  government — that  nation  of 
which  that  Constitution  was  the  organic  law.  Was  it 
possible  to  lose  the  nation  and  yet  preserve  the  Con 
stitution?  By  general  law,  life  and  limb  must  be  pro 
tected;  yet  often  a  limb  must  be  amputated  to  save  a 
life,  but  a  life  is  never  wisely  given  to  save  a  limb.  I 
felt  that  measures,  otherwise  unconstitutional,  might 
become  lawful  by  becoming  indispensable  to  the  pres 
ervation  of  the  Constitution  through  the  preservation 
of  the  nation.  Right  or  wrong,  I  assumed  this  ground, 
and  now  avow  it.  I  could  not  feel  that,  to  the  best 
of  my  ability,  I  had  even  tried  to  preserve  the  Consti 
tution,  if,  to  preserve  slavery,  or  any  minor  matter,  I 
should  permit  the  wreck  of  government,  country,  and 
Constitution  altogether.  When,  early  in  the  war,  Gen 
eral  Fremont  attempted  military  emancipation,  I  for 
bade  it,  because  I  did  not  then  think  it  an  indispensable 
necessity.  When,  a  little  later,  General  Cameron,  then 
Secretary  of  War,  suggested  the  arming  of  the  blacks,  I 
objected,  because  I  did  not  yet  think  it  an  indispensa 
ble  necessity.  When  still  later  General  Hunter  at 
tempted  military  emancipation,  I  again  forbade  it,  be 
cause  I  did  not  yet  think  the  indispensable  necessity 
had  come.  When,  in  March  and  May  and  July,  1862, 
I  made  earnest  and  successive  appeals  to  the  border 
states  to  favor  compensated  emancipation,  I  believed 
the  indispensable  necessity  for  military  emancipation 
and  arming  the  blacks  would  come,  unless  averted  by 
that  measure.  They  declined  the  proposition;  and  I 


LINCOLN   ON   SLAVERY  203 

was,  in  my  best  judgment,  driven  to  the  alternative  of 
either  surrendering  the  Union,  and  with  it  the  Consti 
tution,  or  of  laying  strong  hand  upon  the  colored  ele 
ment.  I  chose  the  latter.'7 

A  few  days  after  the  Proclamation  was  issued  a  large 
delegation  appeared  at  the  White  House,  and  the 
President  was  called  upon  for  a  short  address.  In  ref 
erence  to  the  Proclamation,  he  said: 

"What  I  did,  I  did  after  a  very  full  deliberation,  and 
under  a  heavy  and  solemn  sense  of  responsibility.  I 
can  only  trust  in  God  I  have  made  no  mistake. " 

Two  years  thereafter  he  said: 

"As  affairs  have  turned,  it  is  the  central  act  of  my 
administration,  and  the  great  event  of  the  nineteenth 
century." 

The  final  and  formal  act  of  Emancipation  did  not 
take  place  until  the  1st  of  January,  1863.  One  para 
graph  of  that  is  so  concisely  explanatory  of  the  whole 
Proclamation  that  it  should  be  quoted: 

"And  upon  this  act,  sincerely  believed  to  be  an  act 
of  justice,  warranted  by  the  Constitution,  upon  mili 
tary  necessity,  I  invoke  the  considerate  judgment  of 
mankind,  and  the  gracious  favor  of  Almighty  God." 

After  Lincoln's  re-election  in  November,  1864,  he  took 
up  for  the  second  time  the  matter  of  a  new  amendment 
to  the  Federal  Constitution  to  abolish  slavery  through 
out  the  nation. 

He  always  felt  that  his  own  Emancipation  Proclama 
tion  was  largely  a  military  measure  and  that  a  number 
of  very  serious  and  perplexing  questions  might  arise 
under  it.  Therefore,  in  order  to  save  all  these  and 
guarantee  forever  to  the  black  man  his  new  freedom, 
Lincoln  urged  upon  Congress  the  passage  of  the  Thir 
teenth  Amendment  in  its  present  form  to  be  submitted 


204  THE  VOICE  OF  LINCOLN 

to  the  States  of  the  Union  for  their  adoption.  This 
amendment  finally  passed  Congress  the  last  of  January, 
1865.  It  was  the  crowning  work  of  the  Lincoln  Eman 
cipation. 


CHAPTER  XV 

LINCOLN'S  INTERPRETATION  OF  THE 
DECLARATION  OF  INDEPENDENCE 

IF  America  had  done  nothing  else  than  to  give  the 
world  two  such  apostles  of  democracy  as  Thomas  Jef 
ferson  and  Abraham  Lincoln,  she  would  have  immor 
talized  herself  for  all  coming  ages. 

As  Jefferson  was  the  most  distinguished  author  of 
the  Declaration  of  Independence,  so  Lincoln  has  proven 
its  most  distinguished  interpreter. 

So  far  as  political  discussion  in  the  press  and  public 
forum  was  concerned,  the  Declaration  of  Independence 
had  very  largely  gone  into  eclipse  after  the  surrender 
of  Yorktown  in  1781.  The  men  who  framed  the  Dec 
laration  of  Independence  did  not  frame  the  Constitu 
tion  of  the  United  States.  There  was  not  a  single  line 
of  the  former  in  the  latter.  Save  here  and  there  a  soli 
tary  voice  crying  in  the  wilderness,  that  Declaration  of 
Independence  and  its  immortal  principles  of  personal 
and  political  liberty  was  nothing  but  a  memory. 

Indeed,  in  a  large  section  of  the  country  to  refer  to 
it  was,  to  say  the  least,  lese-majeste,  and  it  remained 
the  practical,  patriotic  task  of  Lincoln  to  resurrect  the 
principles  of  the  Declaration  of  Independence  and  to 
challenge  the  advancing  hosts  of  slavery  to  the  doc 
trines  of  Jefferson  as  announced  and  adopted  in  that 
Declaration. 

What  Aristotle  was  to  his  great  teacher,  Plato,  Lin 
coln  was  to  his  great  teacher,  Jefferson,  and  it  may  be 

205 


206  THE  VOICE  OF  LINCOLN 

observed  here,  for  it  is  an  historical  fact,  that  Abraham 
Lincoln  has  quoted  Jefferson  more  favorably  and  fre 
quently  than  he  has  quoted  all  other  American  states 
men  combined. 

It  would  be  impossible,  as  it  would  be  inadvisable, 
to  give  all  the  references  Lincoln  has  made  to  the  doc 
trines  of  Jefferson  in  or  out  of  the  Declaration  of  Inde 
pendence.  But  a  few  references  will  be  most  oppor 
tune  for  this  chapter  and  this  century. 

Stephen  A.  Douglas  was  in  1857  the  greatest  political 
leader  of  the  Democratic  party,  that  had  been  in  con 
trol  of  the  national  government  in  all  its  councils,  save 
a  few  brief  and  irregular  intervals,  since  the  days  of 
George  Washington. 

Douglas,  known  as  the  " Little  Giant"  of  Illinois, 
was  a  good  lawyer,  a  great  orator,  and  was  looked  for 
ward  to  as  the  candidate  of  his  party  for  the  presidency 
of  the  United  States. 

He  made  a  speech,  upon  invitation  of  the  federal 
grand  jury  of  Springfield,  Illinois,  in  1857,  in  which 
he  said,  among  other  things,  that  "all  men  are  created 
equal,"  meant  only  that  " British  subjects  on  this  con 
tinent  were  equal  to  British  subjects  born  and  residing 
in  Great  Britain." 

The  speech  was  concededly  a  very  able  one  and 
aroused  wide  comment  throughout  Illinois.  A  num 
ber  of  Lincoln's  friends  at  once  appealed  to  him  to 
answer  that  speech.  Lincoln  accepted  the  invitation, 
and  made  what  was  probably  one  of  the  strongest  and 
soundest  political  arguments  of  his  life.  In  the  course 
of  his  address  he  used  this  language  as  the  fair  and 
sensible  interpretation  of  the  Jeffersonian  proposition 
that  "all  men  are  created  equal": 

"I  think  the  authors  of  that  notable  instrument 


DECLARATION  OF  INDEPENDENCE    207 

intended  to  include  all  men;  but  they  did  not  intend 
to  declare  all  men  equal  in  all  respects.  They  did  not 
mean  to  say  all  were  equal  in  color,  size,  intellect,  moral 
developments,  or  social  capacity.  They  defined  with 
tolerable  distinctness  in  what  respects  they  did  con 
sider  all  men  equal — equal  in  certain  inalienable  rights, 
among  which  are  life,  liberty  and  the  pursuit  of  happi 
ness.  This  they  said  and  this  they  meant.  They  did 
not  mean  to  assert  the  obvious  untruth  that  all  were 
then  actually  enjoying  that  equality,  nor  yet  that  they 
were  about  to  confer  it  upon  them.  In  fact,  they  had 
no  power  to  confer  such  a  boon.  They  meant  simply 
to  declare  the  right,  so  that  the  enforcement  of  it  might 
follow  as  fast  as  circumstances  should  permit.  They 
meant  to  set  up  a  standard  maxim  for  free  society, 
which  should  be  familiar  to  all  and  revered  by  all; 
constantly  looked  to,  constantly  labored  for,  and, 
even  though  never  perfectly  attained,  constantly  ap 
proximated,  and  thereby  constantly  spreading  and 
deepening  its  influence,  and  augmenting  the  happiness 
and  value  of  life  to  all  people  of  all  colors  every 
where." 

One  year  thereafter,  on  August  12,  1858,  and  also 
before  the  Douglas  debates,  Lincoln  made  the  speech 
at  Beardstown,  Illinois,  in  which  he  recurs  to  the  same 
matter  but  at  somewhat  greater  length.  The  report 
of  this  speech  was  written  by  Mr.  Horace  White  of 
the  Chicago  Tribune: 

"  These  by  their  representatives  in  old  Independence 
Hall  said  to  the  whole  race  of  men:  'We  hold  these 
truths  to  be  self-evident:  that  all  men  are  created 
equal;  that  they  are  endowed  by  their  Creator  with 
certain  inalienable  rights:  that  among  these  are  life, 
liberty,  and  the  pursuit  of  happiness.'  This  was  their 


208  THE  VOICE  OF  LINCOLN 

majestic  interpretation  of  the  economy  of  the  universe. 
This  was  their  lofty,  and  wise,  and  noble  understanding 
of  the  justice  of  the  Creator  to  his  creatures — yes, 
gentlemen,  to  all  his  creatures,  to  the  whole  great  family 
of  man.  In  their  enlightened  belief,  nothing  stamped 
with  the  divine  image  and  likeness  was  sent  into  the 
world  to  be  trodden  on  and  degraded  and  imbruted 
by  its  fellows:  They  grasped  not  only  the  whole  race 
of  man  then  living,  but  they  reached  forward  and 
seized  upon  the  farthest  posterity.  They  erected  a 
beacon  to  guide  their  children,  and  their  children's 
children,  and  the  countless  myriads  who  should  in 
habit  the  earth  in  other  ages.  Wise  statesmen  as  they 
were,  they  knew  the  tendency  of  prosperity  to  breed 
tyrants,  and  so  they  established  these  great  self-evi 
dent  truths,  that  when  in  the  distant  future  some  man, 
some  faction,  some  interest,  should  set  up  the  doctrine 
that  none  but  rich  men,  none  but  white  men,  or  none 
but  Anglo-Saxon  white  men  were  entitled  to  life,  lib 
erty,  and  the  pursuit  of  happiness,  their  posterity 
might  look  up  again  to  the  Declaration  of  Independence 
and  take  courage  to  renew  the  battle  which  their  fathers 
began,  so  that  truth  and  justice  and  mercy  and  all 
the  humane  and  Christian  virtues  might  not  be  ex 
tinguished  from  the  land;  so  that  no  man  would 
hereafter  dare  to  limit  and  circumscribe  the  great 
principles  on  which  the  temple  of  liberty  was  being 
built. 

"Now,  my  countrymen,  if  you  have  been  taught 
doctrines  conflicting  with  the  great  landmarks  of  the 
Declaration  of  Independence;  if  you  have  listened 
to  suggestions  which  would  take  away  from  its  gran 
deur  and  mutilate  the  fair  symmetry  of  its  proportions; 
if  you  have  been  inclined  to  believe  that  all  men  are 


DECLARATION   OF  INDEPENDENCE    209 

not  created  equal  in  those  inalienable  rights  enumerated 
by  our  chart  of  liberty:  let  me  entreat  you  to  come 
back.  Return  to  the  fountain  whose  waters  spring 
close  by  the  Blood  of  the  Revolution.  Think  nothing 
of  me;  take  no  thought  for  the  political  fate  of  any 
man  whomsoever,  but  come  back  to  the  truths  that 
are  in  the  Declaration  of  Independence.  You  may 
do  anything  with  me  you  choose,  if  you  will  but  heed 
these  sacred  principles.  You  may  not  only  defeat  me 
for  the  Senate,  but  you  may  take  me  and  put  me  to 
death.  While  pretending  no  indifference  to  earthly 
honors,  I  do  claim  to  be  actuated  in  this  contest  by 
something  higher  than  an  anxiety  for  office.  I  charge 
you  to  drop  every  paltry  and  insignificant  thought 
for  any  man's  success.  It  is  nothing;  I  am  nothing; 
Judge  Douglas  is  nothing.  But  do  not  destroy  that 
immortal  emblem  of  humanity — the  Declaration  of 
American  Independence."  * 

In  Lincoln's  great  speech  at  Chicago,  in  June,  1858, 
before  the  debates,  he  said  upon  the  Declaration  of 
Independence : 

"Now,  sirs,  for  the  purpose  of  squaring  things  with 
this  idea  of  '  don't  care  if  slavery  is  voted  up  or  voted 
down,'  for  sustaining  the  Dred  Scott  decision,  for  hold 
ing  that  the  Declaration  of  Independence  did  not  mean 
anything  at  all,  we  have  Judge  Douglas  giving  his 
exposition  of  what  the  Declaration  of  Independence 
means,  and  we  have  him  saying  that  the  people  of 
America  are  equal  to  the  people  of  England.  Accord 
ing  to  his  construction,  you  Germans  are  not  connected 
with  it.  Now,  I  ask  you  in  all  soberness,  if  all  these 
things,  if  indulged  in,  if  ratified,  if  confirmed  and  in 
dorsed,  if  taught  to  our  children,  and  repeated  to  them, 
*  Herndon,  vol.  II,  p.  84. 


210  THE  VOICE  OF  LINCOLN 

do  not  tend  to  rub  out  the  sentiment  of  liberty  in  the 
country,  and  to  transform  this  government  into  a 
government  of  some  other  form.  Those  arguments 
that  are  made,  that  the  inferior  race  are  to  be  treated 
with  as  much  allowance  as  they  are  capable  of  enjoy 
ing;  that  as  much  is  to  be  done  for  them  as  their  con 
dition  will  allow.  What  are  these  arguments?  They 
are  the  arguments  that  kings  have  made  for  enslaving 
the  people  in  all  ages  of  the  world.  You  will  find  that 
all  the  arguments  in  favor  of  kingcraft  were  of  this 
class;  they  always  bestrode  the  necks  of  the  people, 
not  that  they  wanted  to  do  it,  but  because  the  people 
were  better  off  for  being  ridden.  That  is  their  argu 
ment,  and  this  argument  of  the  Judge  is  the  same  old 
serpent  that  says,  You  work,  and  I  eat;  you  toil,  and 
I  will  enjoy  the  fruits  of  it.  Turn  in  whatever  way 
you  will,  whether  it  come  from  the  mouth  of  a  king, 
an  excuse  for  enslaving  the  people  of  his  country,  or 
from  the  mouth  of  men  of  one  race  as  a  reason  for  en 
slaving  the  men  of  another  race,  it  is  all  the  same  old 
serpent;  and  I  hold,  if  that  course  of  argumentation 
that  is  made  for  the  purpose  of  convincing  the  public 
mind  that  we  should  not  care  about  this,  should  be 
granted,  it  does  not  stop  with  the  negro.  I  should 
like  to  know  if,  taking  this  old  Declaration  of  Inde 
pendence,  which  declares  that  all  men  are  equal  upon 
principle,  and  making  exceptions  to  it,  where  will  it 
stop  ?  If  one  man  says  it  does  not  mean  a  negro,  why 
not  another  say  it  does  not  mean  some  other  man? 
If  that  declaration  is  not  the  truth,  let  us  get  the  statute 
book,  in  which  we  find  it,  and  tear  it  out !  (Cries  of 
'No,  No/)  Let  us  stick  to  it,  then;  let  us  stand  firmly 
by  it  then." 

The  week  following  the  Chicago  speech  he  again 


DECLARATION  OF  INDEPENDENCE    211 

refers  to  the  Declaration  of  Independence  in  a  speech 
he  delivered  at  Springfield,  Illinois: 

"My  declaration  upon  this  subject  of  negro  slavery 
may  be  misrepresented,  but  cannot  be  misunderstood. 
I  have  said  that  I  do  not  understand  the  Declaration 
to  mean  that  all  men  were  created  equal  in  all  respects. 
They  are  not  our  equal  in  color;  but  I  suppose  that  it 
does  mean  to  declare  that  all  men  are  equal  in  some 
respects;  they  are  equal  in  their  right  to  'life,  Liberty, 
and  the  pursuit  of  happiness/  Certainly  the  negro 
is  not  our  equal  in  color, — perhaps  not  in  many  other 
respects;  still,  in  the  right  to  put  into  his  mouth  the 
bread  that  his  own  hands  have  earned,  he  is  the  equal 
of  every  other  man,  white  or  black.  In  pointing  out 
that  more  has  been  given  you,  you  cannot  be  justified 
in  taking  away  the  little  which  has  been  given  him. 
All  I  ask  for  the  negro  is  that  if  you  do  not  like  him, 
let  him  alone.  If  God  gave  him  but  little,  that  little 
let  him  enjoy." 

Throughout  the  Douglas-Lincoln  debates  in  the  cam 
paign  for  the  United  States  senatorship,  reference  to 
which  is  made  in  another  chapter,  Lincoln  was  de 
claring  and  defining  the  doctrines  of  the  Declaration 
of  Independence  as  written  by  Jefferson,  and  adopted 
by  the  Federal  Congress,  while  Douglas  was  endeavor 
ing  to  restrict  the  meaning  so  as  to  apply  only  to  white 
men  or  English  subjects.  A  typical  illustration  from 
these  debates,  as  bearing  upon  the  Declaration  of  In 
dependence,  as  understood  by  Lincoln,  will  be  pertinent 
here. 

In  the  first  debate  at  Ottawa,  August  21,  1858,  Lin 
coln  said: 

"I  have  no  purpose  to  introduce  political  and  social 
equality  between  the  white  and  the  black  races.  There 


212  THE  VOICE   OF  LINCOLN 

is  a  physical  difference  between  the  two  which,  in  my 
judgment,  will  probably  forever  forbid  their  living 
together  upon  the  footing  of  perfect  equality;  and  in 
asmuch  as  it  becomes  a  necessity  that  there  must  be  a 
difference,  I,  as  well  as  Judge  Douglas,  am  in  favor  of 
the  race  to  which  I  belong  having  the  superior  posi 
tion.  I  have  never  said  anything  to  the  contrary,  but 
I  hold  that,  notwithstanding  all  this,  there  is  no  reason 
in  the  world  why  the  negro  is  not  entitled  to  all  the 
natural  rights  enumerated  in  the  Declaration  of  Inde 
pendence — the  right  to  life,  liberty,  and  the  pursuit  of 
happiness.  I  hold  that  he  is  as  much  entitled  to  these 
as  the  white  man.  I  agree  with  Judge  Douglas  he  is 
not  my  equal  in  many  respects — certainly  not  in  color, 
perhaps  not  in  moral  or  intellectual  endowment.  But 
in  the  right  to  eat  the  bread,  without  the  leave  of  any 
body  else,  which  his  own  hand  earns,  he  is  my  equal, 
and  the  equal  of  Judge  Douglas,  and  the  equal  of  every 
living  man." 

Later  on,  in  the  very  notable  address  in  February, 
1861,  at  Philadelphia,  indeed  in  the  very  Independence 
Hall,  Lincoln  said : 

"I  am  filled  with  deep  emotion  at  finding  myself 
standing  here  in  this  place,  where  were  collected  the 
wisdom  and  patriotism  and  devotion  to  principle  from 
which  sprang  the  institutions  under  which  we  live. 
You  have  kindly  suggested  to  me  that  in  my  hands  is 
the  task  of  restoring  peace  to  the  present  distracted 
condition  of  the  country.  I  can  say  in  return,  Sir, 
that  all  the  political  sentiments  I  entertain  have  been 
drawn  so  far  as  I  have  been  able  to  draw  them  from  the 
sentiments  which  originated  and  were  given  to  the  world 
from  this  hall.  I  have  never  had  a  feeling  politically  that 
did  not  spring  from  the  sentiments  embodied  in  the  Dec 
laration  of  Independence.  I  have  often  pondered  over 


DECLARATION   OF  INDEPENDENCE    213 

the  dangers  which  were  incurred  by  the  men  who  as 
sembled  here  and  framed  and  adopted  that  Declaration 
of  Independence.  I  have  pondered  over  the  toils  that 
were  endured  by  the  officers  and  soldiers  of  the  army 
who  achieved  that  independence.  ...  It  was  not  the 
mere  matter  of  a  separation  of  the  Colonies  from  the 
Motherland,  but  that  sentiment  in  the  Declaration  of 
Independence  which  gave  liberty  not  alone  to  the  peo 
ple  of  this  country,  but  I  hope  to  the  world  for  all  future 
time.  It  was  that  which  gave  promise  that  in  due  time 
the  weight  would  be  lifted  from  the  shoulders  of  all  men. 
This  is  the  sentiment  embodied  in  the  Declaration  of 
Independence.  Now,  my  friends,  can  this  country  be 
saved  on  this  basis?  If  it  can  I  will  consider  myself 
one  of  the  happiest  men  in  the  world  if  I  can  help  to 
save  it.  If  it  cannot  be  saved  upon  that  principle,  it  will 
be  truly  awful.  But  if  this  country  cannot  be  saved 
without  giving  up  that  principle,  I  was  about  to  say  / 
would  rather  be  assassinated  on  this  spot  than  surrender." 

In  view  of  all  these  declarations  by  Lincoln  express 
ing  with  emphasis  his  abiding  faith  in  the  principles  of 
the  Declaration  of  Independence  as  the  fundamental 
democracy  of  this  country,  it  was  entirely  fitting  that 
the  great  Magna  Charta  of  his  practical,  patriotic 
democracy  should  be  given  at  Gettysburg  as  the  climax 
of  it  all. 

Lincoln's  great  political  teacher  in  democracy,  antici 
pating  the  end,  wrote  his  own  epitaph  in  these  modest 
words : 

"Here  was  buried  Thomas  Jefferson,  author  of  the 
Declaration  of  Independence,  of  the  Statute  of  Virginia 
for  religious  freedom,  and  father  of  the  University  of 
Virginia." 

He  didn't  even  mention  that  he  had  been  President 
of  the  United  States  for  eight  years,  deeming  it  was 


214  THE  VOICE  OF  LINCOLN 

nobler  to  have  contributed  something  to  the  political, 
religious,  and  intellectual  liberty  of  the  American 
people. 

Had  Lincoln  written  his  own  epitaph,  at  the  close  of 
his  eventful  life,  the  phrase  in  his  own  inimitable 
phrase,  would  perhaps  have  been  something  about 
liberty  and  democracy. 

Most  of  us  have  read  the  Declaration  of  Indepen 
dence.  Few  of  us  have  studied  it.  Perhaps  no  other 
great  American  has  given  it  the  studious  thought  and 
analytical  attention  as  did  Abraham  Lincoln. 

It  must  have  made  a  very  profound  impression  upon 
him,  else  he  would  not  have  so  earnestly  and  so  often 
quoted  it,  discussed  it,  interpreted  it,  and  applied  it 
to  the  political  conditions  of  the  time. 

Most  of  us  have  accepted  its  sentiments  as  "  self- 
evident."  At  least  we  have  given  little  thought  to 
the  logic  that  its  lines  develop.  It  is  a  poem  of  pa 
triotism  in  prose.  But  it  is  more.  It  is  a  masterpiece 
of  logic  well  worthy  of  an  Aristotle,  a  Whateley,  or  a 
Mill. 

As  Lincoln  himself  has  said  in  his  speech  at  Phila 
delphia,  February,  1861,  heretofore  referred  to: 

"I  have  never  had  a  feeling  politically  that  did  not 
spring  from  the  sentiments  embodied  in  the  Declara 
tion  of  Independence.  ...  It  was  not  the  mere  mat 
ter  of  a  separation  of  the  Colonies  from  the  Mother 
land,  but  that  sentiment  in  the  Declaration  of  Inde 
pendence  which  gave  liberty  not  alone  to  the  people 
of  this  country,  but  I  hope  to  the  world  for  all  future  time. 
It  was  that  which  gave  promise  that  in  due  time  the 
weight  would  be  lifted  from  the  shoulders  of  all  men. 
This  is  the  sentiment  embodied  in  the  Declaration  of 
Independence. ' ' 


DECLARATION   OF  INDEPENDENCE    215 

But  Lincoln  got  more  than  sentiment  from  this  Dec 
laration,  which  he  read  in  his  early  Indiana  days  out 
of  David  Turnham's  "  Revised  Statutes  of  Indiana. " 
Perchance  he  also  may  have  read  it  in  the  "  History  of 
the  United  States/7  though  we  are  not  told  whether 
such  history  contained  the  Declaration  in  full  or  not. 
At  all  events  he  must  have  learned  it  by  heart  at  an 
early  age,  and  its  rich  outcroppings  appear  almost  con 
tinually  in  his  course  of  political  discussions  and  state 
papers. 

But  the  logic  of  that  immortal  document,  as  written 
by  Jefferson,  provided  Lincoln  with  the  key  to  those 
fundamental  political  doctrines  that  furnished  the  un 
derpinning  of  our  national  democracy. 

Let  us  give  heed  for  a  moment  to  this  Declaration. 
Naturally,  first  comes  the  preamble,  a  masterly  state 
ment. 

Then  comes  the  declaration  of  self-evident  truths: 
"that  all  men  are  created  equal,  that  they  are  en 
dowed  by  their  Creator  with  certain  unalienable 
Rights,  that  among  these  are  Life,  Liberty  and  the 
pursuit  of  Happiness.  That  to  secure  these  rights, 
Governments  are  instituted  among  Men,  deriving  their 
just  powers  from  the  consent  of  the  governed,  That 
whenever  any  Form  of  Government  becomes  destruc 
tive  of  these  ends,  it  is  the  Right  of  the  People  to  alter 
or  to  abolish  it,  and  to  institute  new  Government,  lay 
ing  its  foundation  on  such  principles  and  organizing  its 
powers  in  such  form,  as  to  them  shall  seem  most  likely 
to  effect  their  Safety  and  Happiness." 

Next  comes  the  demonstration  that  these  self-evident 
rights  have  been  constantly  and  cardinally  violated, 
viz.: 

"But  when  a  long  train  of  abuses  and  usurpations, 


216  THE  VOICE  OF  LINCOLN 

pursuing  invariably  the  same  Object  evinces  a  design 
to  reduce  them  under  absolute  Despotism,  it  is  their 
right,  it  is  their  duty,  to  throw  off  such  Government, 
and  to  provide  new  Guards  for  their  future  security. 
The  history  of  the  present  King  of  Great  Britain  is  a 
history  of  repeated  injuries  and  usurpations,  all  having 
in  direct  object  the  establishment  of  an  absolute 
Tyranny  over  these  States.  To  prove  this,  let  Facts 
be  submitted  to  a  candid  world." 

Then  follow  eighteen  separate  paragraphs,  specify 
ing  the  manner  in  which  the  aforesaid  "  self-evident " 
rights  of  the  American  colonists  have  been  violated,  all 
stated  so  simply,  so  strongly,  that  it  is  nine-tenths  an 
argument. 

After  demonstration  is  completed  then  comes,  dedi 
cation: 

"We,  therefore,  the  Representatives  of  the  united 
States  of  America,  in  General  Congress,  Assembled, 
appealing  to  the  Supreme  Judge  of  the  world  for  the 
rectitude  of  our  intentions,  do,  in  the  Name,  and 
by  Authority  of  the  good  People  of  these  Colonies, 
solemnly  publish  and  declare,  That  these  United 
Colonies  are,  and  of  Right  ought  to  be  Free  and  In 
dependent  States;  .  .  .  and  that  as  Free  and  Inde 
pendent  States,  they  have  full  Power  to  levy  War, 
conclude  Peace,  contract  Alliances,  establish  Com 
merce,  and  to  do  all  other  Acts  and  Things  which 
Independent  States  may  of  right  do.  And  for  the 
support  of  this  Declaration,  with  a  firm  reliance  on 
the  Protection  of  Divine  Providence,  we  mutually  pledge 
to  each  other  our  lives,  our  Fortunes  and  our  sacred 
Honor." 

Signed  by  the  thirteen  colonies  through  their  fifty- 
six  delegates. 


DECLARATION  OF  INDEPENDENCE    217 

The  reader  will  note  the  significant  and  orderly  ar 
rangement  of  this  illustrious  argument: 

1.  Declaration. 

2.  Demonstration. 

3.  Dedication. 

And  this  afterward  served  as  the  strong,  splendid 
model  of  Abraham  Lincoln  in  substantially  all  of  his 
legal  and  political  addresses,  as  well  as  his  masterly 
state  papers. 


CHAPTER  XVI 
GETTYSBURG  ORATION 

GETTYSBURG — a  little  village  of  less  than  four  thou 
sand  people  in  southern  Pennsylvania  near  the  Mary 
land  border — became  world-famous  in  1863  for  two 
reasons: 

1.  A  great  battle. 

2.  A  great  speech. 

"  The  great  battle"  is  pronounced  by  historians,  espe 
cially  by  Creasy,  as  one  of  a  class  of  fifteen  decisive 
battles  of  the  world's  wars. 

"The  great  speech"  is  unclassified.  It  stands  alone 
as  the  greatest  speech  of  its  kind  ever  delivered  by 
human  tongue. 

What  made  it  great? 

1.  The  situation. 

2.  The  speaker. 

3.  The  speech. 

"The  great  battle"  had  taken  place  July  1-4,  1863. 
It  was  one  of  the  most  sanguinary  struggles  that  war 
fare  up  to  then  had  ever  recorded.  The  city  of  the 
dead  had  become  larger  than  the  city  of  the  living. 
The  toll  of  life  and  limb,  of  sacrifice  and  of  suffering 
had  been  appalling  in  that  heroic  struggle,  but  where 
"American  met  American."  The  side  that  stood  for 
liberty  and  democracy  had  overwhelmingly  triumphed. 

A  great  national  call  went  up  over  the  land  that 
some  of  this  sacred  soil  should  be  set  apart  for  a  na 
tional  cemetery  for  the  honored  dead. 

218 


GETTYSBURG  ORATION  219 

The  governors  of  the  States  conferred  about  it  and 
the  Honorable  Andrew  G.  Cur  tin,  the  distinguished 
war  governor  of  Pennsylvania,  was  given  local  charge 
and  designated  one  David  Wills  as  his  agent  to  take 
care  of  the  routine  of  the  arrangements. 

Wills  wrote  a  letter  to  Abraham  Lincoln,  as  President 
of  the  United  States,  inviting  him  to  be  present  upon 
that  occasion. 

A  very  pertinent  part  of  that  letter  reads  as  follows : 

".  .  .  Hon.  Edward  Everett  will  deliver  the  ora 
tion.  I  am  authorized  by  the  Governors  of  the  different 
states  to  invite  you  to  be  present  and  participate  in 
these  ceremonies,  which  will  doubtless  be  very  impos 
ing  and  solemnly  impressive.  It  is  the  desire  that 
after  the  oration,  you,  as  chief  executive  of  the  nation, 
formally  set  apart  these  grounds  to  their  sacred  use 
by  a  few  appropriate  remarks" 

The  ceremonies  took  place  November  19,  1863.  The 
presidential  party  arrived  from  Washington  the  day 
before,  and  was  composed  of  the  President,  Secretary 
of  State  Seward,  Postmaster-General  Blah*,  Secretary 
of  the  Interior  Usher,  John  G.  Nicolay,  and  John  Hay, 
the  President's  secretaries,  and  Captain  H.  A.  Wise 
and  wife,  the  latter  a  daughter  of  the  Honorable  Ed 
ward  Everett,  together  with  many  newspaper  corre 
spondents  arid  a  military  guard  of  honor. 

The  night  before  a  public  reception  was  held  by  the 
good  citizens  of  Gettysburg,  at  which  there  was  some 
speech-making. 

The  President,  of  course,  was  called  on,  but  expressed 
a  desire  to  reserve  his  remarks  for  the  following  day. 

Secretary  Seward  was  also  called  on  and  delivered  a 
brief  address,  which  is  as  follows: 

"I  am  thankful  that  you  are  willing  to  hear  me  at 


220  THE  VOICE   OF  LINCOLN 

last.  I  thank  my  God  that  I  believe  this  strife  is 
going  to  end  in  the  removal  of  all  that  evil  which 
ought  to  have  been  removed  by  deliberate  counsel  and 
peaceable  means  (good).  I  thank  my  God  for  the 
hope  .  .  .  that  when  that  cause  is  removed  simply  by 
the  operation  of  abolishing  it  as  the  origin  and  agent 
of  the  treason  that  it  is  without  justification  and  with 
out  parallel,  we  shall  henceforth  be  united,  be  only 
one  country,  having  only  one  hope,  one  ambition  and 
one  destiny.  To-morrow  at  least  we  shall  feel  that 
we  are  not  enemies,  but  that  we  are  friends  and  brothers, 
that  this  union  is  a  reality  and  we  shall  moan  together 
for  the  evil  wrought  by  this  rebellion.  .  .  .  When  we 
part  to-morrow  night  let  us  remember  that  we  owe  it 
to  our.  country  and  to  mankind  that  this  war  shall 
have  for  its  conclusion  the  establishment  of  the  principle 
of  Democratic  government  .  .  .  the  simple  principle 
that  whatever  party,  whatever  portion  of  the  com 
munity  prevails  by  constitutional  suffrage  in  an  elec 
tion,  that  party  is  to  be  respected  and  maintained  in 
power  until  it  shall  give  place,  on  another  trial  and 
another  verdict,  to  a  different  portion  of  the  people. 
If  you  do  not  do  this  you  are  drifting  at  once  and  irre 
sistibly  to  the  very  verge  of  universal,  cheerless,  and 
hopeless  anarchy." 

When  placed  in  parallel  columns  with  the  "few  ap 
propriate  remarks"  of  Lincoln,  the  day  following,  it 
can  be  confidently  said  that  the  " rail-splitter"  of  the 
new  West  does  not  suffer  in  comparison  with  his  schol 
arly  and  distinguished  Secretary  of  State. 

We  had  had  two  awful  years  of  war.  No  one  ven 
tured  to  see  the  end.  The  triumphs  of  Grant  and 
Sherman  had  not  yet  come.  The  tremendous  loss  of 
life  and  treasure,  suffering  and  sacrifice  was  to  be  en 
dured  for  two  years  more  until  Appomattox. 


GETTYSBURG   ORATION  221 

In  this  appalling  situation  the  morning  of  November 
19  had  come  when  Edward  Everett,  in  a  masterly, 
eloquent,  and  histrionic  address  of  two  hours  delivered 
"  the  oration." 

Then  came  Lincoln,  who  was  assigned  the  task  of 
making  a  "few  appropriate  remarks." 

The  air  was  still  charged  with  the  eloquence  of  Ever 
ett.  Its  echoes  still  hallowed  every  heart  of  those  who 
heard.  Probably  but  few  of  the  assembled  thousands 
expected  any  more  than  a  mere  formal  dedication  of 
that  sacred  soil  for  a  national  cemetery.  But  no,  the 
ceremonies  of  the  day  were  not  over;  they  had  only 
begun. 

Like  Moses  of  old,  delivering  a  new  commandment 
to  his  people,  so  Lincoln,  awkward,  ungainly,  pro 
foundly  impressed  with  the  solemnity  of  the  occasion, 
gives  a  new  commandment  to  his  people  for  a  new 
" dedication"  to  "new  birth  of  freedom,"  and  a  new 
democracy  in  "government  of  the  people  by  the  peo 
ple  and  for  the  people." 

Lincoln  said : 

"Four  score  and  seven  years  ago  our  fathers  brought 
forth  on  this  continent,  a  new  nation,  conceived  in 
liberty,  and  dedicated  to  the  proposition  that  all  men 
are  created  equal.  Now  we  are  engaged  in  a  great 
civil  war,  testing  whether  that  nation,  or  any  nation  so 
conceived  and  so  dedicated,  can  long  endure.  We  are 
met  on  a  great  battlefield  of  that  war.  We  have 
come  to  dedicate  a  portion  of  that  field,  as  a  final  resting 
place  for  those  who  here  gave  their  lives  that  that  na 
tion  might  live.  It  is  altogether  fitting  and  proper 
that  we  should  do  this.  But,  in  a  larger  sense,  we  can 
not  dedicate,  we  cannot  consecrate,  we  cannot  hallow, 
this  ground.  The  brave  men,  living  and  dead,  who 
struggled  here  have  consecrated  it  far  above  our  poor 


222  THE   VOICE   OF   LINCOLN 

power  to  add  or  detract.  The  world  will  little  note  nor 
long  remember  what  we  may  say  here,  but  it  can  never 
forget  what  they  did  here.  It  is  for  us  the  living  rather 
to  be  dedicated  here  to  the  unfinished  work  which  they 
who  fought  here  have  thus  far  so  nobly  advanced.  It 
is  rather  for  us  to  be  here  dedicated  to  the  great  task 
remaining  before  us,  that  from  these  honored  dead  we 
take  increased  devotion  to  that  cause  for  which  they 
gave  the  last  full  measure  of  devotion;  that  we  here 
highly  resolve  that  these  dead  shall  not  have  died  in 
vain;  that  this  nation  under  God  shall  have  a  new 
birth  of  freedom,  and  that  government  of  the  people, 
by  the  people,  and  for  the  people,  shall  not  perish  from 
the  earth." 

There  has  been  much  misinformation  in  regard  to 
the  preparation  of  this  address,  some  contending  that 
it  was  wholly  extemporaneous,  others  that  it  was  writ 
ten  on  board  train  between  Washington  and  Gettys 
burg,  some  say  upon  the  President's  cuff,  others  upon 
a  mere  scrap  of  paper,  presumably  an  envelope. 

Lincoln's  speeches  almost  without  exception,  cer 
tainly  all  his  great  speeches,  were  most  carefully  thought 
out,  systematically  arranged,  logically  fitted  together 
and  painstakingly  phrased,  generally  through  manu 
script  before  their  delivery. 

Those  who  knew  Mr.  Lincoln  best  generally  join  in 
the  contention  that  Mr.  Lincoln  was  not  a  success  as 
an  impromptu  speaker.  The  Springfield  speech  in  1858 
and  Cooper  Union  speech  in  New  York  in  1860  contain 
undoubted  evidences  of  that  thorough  preparation 
characteristic  of  Lincoln. 

And  so  as  to  this  Gettysburg  address,  that  is  classed 
as  one  of  his  four  greatest  addresses,  Colonel  John 
Nicolay,  who  was  one  of  his  private  secretaries  and  a 


GETTYSBURG   ORATION  223 

member  of  the  presidential  party  on  this  occasion, 
says: 

1  i  There  is  neither  recorded  evidence,  nor  well-founded 
tradition  that  Mr.  Lincoln  did  any  writing  or  made 
any  notes  on  the  journey  between  Washington  and 
Gettysburg." 

The  best  available  evidence  from  Nicolay  and  others 
is  to  the  effect  that  the  first  draft  of  this  speech  was 
prepared  in  Washington  the  day  before  the  trip. 

Mr.  Wills,  President  Lincoln's  host  at  Gettysburg, 
says  that  the  President  retired  about  nine  o'clock  and 
sent  his  servant  down-stairs  for  writing-materials. 
These  were  taken  to  Mr.  Lincoln's  room  by  Mr.  Wills 
himself.  Thereupon  Mr.  Lincoln  said  to  him:  "Mr. 
Wills,  what  do  you  expect  from  me  to-morrow?"  Mr. 
Wills  replied:  "A  brief  address,  Mr.  President." 

Mr.  Wills  reports  that  in  about  a  half  an  hour  after 
his  visit  to  President  Lincoln's  room,  Mr.  Lincoln 
came  down-stairs,  and  had  some  sheets  of  paper  with 
him,  and  with  Mr.  Wills  he  went  to  the  house  in  which 
Secretary  Seward  was  a  guest  and  submitted  to  the 
secretary  his  manuscript.  It  is  said  to  have  met  Mr. 
Seward's  approval.  They  then  returned  to  the  Wills 
home.  The  next  morning  a  further  revision  of  the 
manuscript  was  made. 

At  the  time  of  the  speech  Mr.  Nicolay  advises  us 
that  the  President  held  the  manuscript  in  his  hand, 
though  he  did  not  read  from  it,  but  in  his  delivery 
of  the  speech  he  further  revised  the  matter  and  style 
of  the  manuscript. 

So  that  the  preponderance  of  the  evidence  is  clear, 
from  those  who  ought  to  know,  that  this  speech  was 
most  carefully  considered,  drafted,  and  redrafted  by 
Mr.  Lincoln  before  its  delivery.  But  if  any  further 


224  THE  VOICE   OF   LINCOLN 

evidence  were  needed  to  corroborate  painstaking  prep 
aration,  both  as  to  logic  and  language,  the  speech  it 
self  furnishes  that  evidence. 

Shortly  thereafter  a  further  slight  verbal  revision 
was  made  by  Lincoln,  which  gave  us  the  masterpiece 
we  now  know. 

For  years  I  have  had  a  sort  of  subconscious  feeling 
that  there  was  something  about  this  address  that  I 
had  not  discovered.  I  could  feel  its  effect.  It  was 
exhilarating  but  elusive;  when  I  reached  out  for  it 
it  would  seem  to  be  just  beyond  me. 

My  curiosity  to  discover  this  mystery  persisted  to 
the  point  that  I  was  led  to  put  this  speech  into  its  parts, 
and  see  what,  if  anything,  would  be  disclosed.  So  I 
dissected  it  into  its  ten  sentences,  and  the  result  of 
that  labor  is  shown  on  opposite  page. 

This  dissection  of  the  Gettysburg  speech  developed 
the  keystone  idea  of  Lincoln  upon  this  occasion.  His 
art  in  putting  this  central  idea  in  every  one  of  the  ten 
sentences  uttered  upon  that  occasion  demonstrates 
beyond  a  doubt  his  unapproachable  excellence  in  logic 
and  language. 

How  closely  it  is  reasoned,  how  cleverly  expressed ! 
The  polish  in  his  patriotism,  the  philosophy  in  his  prop 
ositions,  the  unity  of  his  ideas  are  all  typical  of  his 
great  life  and  his  devotion  to  the  union  of  the  States. 

What  is  this  keystone  idea  throughout  the  address? 
The  colored  diagram  is  its  own  answer:  " DEDICA 
TION." 

In  these  ten  sentences  the  word  " dedicate"  ex 
pressly  appears  six  times.  In  the  fifth  sentence  the 
definitive  adjective  "this"  is  used  for  "dedicate." 

In  the  seventh  sentence  the  word  "consecrate"  is 
used  for  "dedicate." 


GETTYSBURG  ORATION 


225 


DECLARATION  OF  INDEPENDENCE 

GETTYSBURCX^DDRESS 
(AN  ANALYSI^L 


Sentence 
One. 


Sentence 
Two. 


Sentence 
Three. 

Sentence 
Four. 


Sentence 
Five. 

Sentence 
Six. 

Sentence 
Seven. 


Sentence 
Eight. 


Sentence 
Nine. 


Sentence 
Ten. 


Fourscore  and  seven  (eighty-sexen)  years  ago  (1776, 
not  1789)  our  fathers  brought  fortbSujon  this  continent 
a  new  nation  conceived  in  liberty  andjDEDICATED]  to 
the  proposition  that  all  men  are^p^eaTed  equal. 

Now  we  are  engaged^Tn  a  great  civil  war  testing 
whether  that  najjonor  any  nation  so  conceived,  and  so 
DEDICATED]  can  long  endure. 


We   are    met   on    a  great 
life  is  dedicated)  of  that  war 


(where 


We  have  come  tol DEDICATE] a  portion  of  that  field 
as  a  final  resting-pia"ce  for  those  who  here  gave  their  lives 
that  thai  naUenmight  live. 

It  iftXitogethcr  fitting  and  proper  that  we  should  do 
ITHISJCDEDICATE). 

But  in  a  larger  sense  we  cannot J  DEDIC ATEJ  we  can 
not  consecrate,  we  cannot  halloXthis  ground. 

The  brave  men  livinaj^and  dead  who  struggled  here 
havelCONSECRATEDlit  far  above  our  poor  power  to 
add  or  detract. 


The  world  will  litne  note  nor  long  remember  what 
we  may  say  here,  but  nScan  never  forget 
JWHAT  THEY  DID  HERE.j 
(Dedication  of  Kbman  life.) 


It  is  for  us  the  living  rather  to  be  I  DEDICATED!  here 
to  the  unfinished  work  which  they  who  fougift  here  have 
thus  far  so  nobly  advanced. 


It  is  rather  for  us  to  be  here|DEDICATED|to  the  great 
tasks  remaining  before  us,  that  from  these  honored  dead 
we  take  increased  devotion  to  that  cause  for  which  they 
gave  the  last  full  measure  of  devotion;  that  we  here  highly 
resolve  that  these  dead  shall  not  have  died  in  vain;  that 
this  nation  under  God  shall  have  a  new  birth  of  freedom, 
and  that  government  of  the  people  by  the  people  and  for 
the  people  shall  not  perish  from  the  earth. 


226  THE  VOICE   OF   LINCOLN 

In  the  third  sentence  we  have  the  word  "  battle 
field/'  and  in  the  eighth  sentence  we  have  the  words 
"what  they  did  here/'  the  simplest,  strongest,  and 
most  picturesque  language  possible  to  express  the 
active  idea  of  dedication. 

As  the  word  " dedicate"  was  the  biggest  and  best 
word  in  the  English  language  in  1863  in  mid- war,  so 
that  same  word  " dedicate"  is  the  biggest  and  best 
word  in  the  English  language  to-day  when  we  are 
likewise  in  mid-war. 

As  Jefferson  made  it  the  slogan  of  our  spirit  and 
test  of  the  times  in  1776,  and  as  Lincoln  likewise  used 
it  in  1863,  so  may  we  all,  as  one  hundred  million  Amer 
icans  or  more,  likewise  use  it  in  1917. 

Some  have  placed  the  emphasis  in  this  speech  upon 
the  last  part  of  the  last  sentence;  some  have  placed 
it  upon  the  prepositions  "OP,"  "BY,"  and  "FOR." 
But  I  submit,  and  some  who  heard  it  hold,  that  what 
ever  emphasis  was  used  in  this  sentence  was  put,  not 
upon  the  prepositions,  but  upon  the  words  "the  people." 
Yet  the  foregoing  diagram  unmistakably  demonstrates 
that  Lincoln  put  his  emphasis  elsewhere — that  he 
placed  it  properly  upon  the  central  idea  "dedicate." 

How  this  idea  is  bound  together  and  linked  on  to 
the  pole-star  of  the  Declaration  of  Independence ! 

Indeed,  we  find  sentence  two  linked  on  to  sentence 
one,  and  sentence  three  linked  on  in  turn  to  sentence 
two,  and  so  on  through  these  ten  sentences,  link  on 
link,  until  he  had  forged  a  chain  of  consecration,  dedi 
cating  the  nation  to  liberty,  equality,  and  democracy. 

But  this  speech  was  not  only  remarkable  for  what  it 
did  say;  it  was  equally  as  remarkable  for  what  it  did 
not  say. 

Throughout  the  speech  of  Edward  Everett  there 


GETTYSBURG  ORATION  227 

occur  the  words  " rebel"  and  "rebellion,"  " slavery," 
" secession/'  "treason,"  and  the  like,  and  Secretary 
Seward,  the  night  before  in  his  short  speech,  hereto 
fore  quoted,  used  the  words  "treason,"  and  "rebel 
lion." 

But  these  find  no  place  in  the  speech  of  Lincoln. 
Not  a  bitter  or  hateful  word  is  there,  and  though  a 
man  above  all  others  who  had  been  rejected  and  re 
viled  by  the  South,  he  reviled  not  again. 

Truly  has  Job  written,  "How  forcible  are  right 
words";  and  I  may  add  also,  How  forcible  are  appro 
priate  thoughts ! 

The  Gettysburg  address  is  more  than  a  great  ora 
tion,  it  is  an  index  of  his  mind,  an  exponent  of  his  spir 
itual  self.  It  is  as  perfect  a  portrait  of  Abraham  Lin 
coln  as  could  be  put  in  human  speech. 

In  short,  we  see  here  the  logician,  the  linguist,  the 
leader,  the  spirit  and  soul  of  a  truly  great  man,  moved 
by  "malice  toward  none  and  charity  for  all." 

The  brevity  of  the  speech  is  excelled  only  by  the 
brevity  of  the  words  in  which  it  is  phrased. 

The  ten  sentences  contain  267  immortal  words,  200 
of  which  are  words  of  one  syllable;  43  words  of  two 
syllables  and  the  remainder  three  or  more  syllables, 
but  all  of  them  are  simple  and  familiar  enough  for 
"any  boy  I  knew  to  comprehend." 

The  short  Saxon  words  stand  out  strongly.  Lincoln 
had  never  studied  Latin  or  Greek,  or  any  other  foreign 
language,  but  he  did  know  English,  and  as  a  specimen 
of  the  purest  English  this  address  has  to-day  an  honored 
place  in  Oxford  University,  England. 

Note  also  the  absence  of  the  superlative,  the  de 
scriptive  adjective  and  adverb.  The  skeleton  of  his 


228  THE  VOICE  OF  LINCOLN 

speech  is  the  concrete  noun  to  which  he  hitches  some 
active  verb  or  its  derivatives. 

These  words  have  point  and  "  punch  "  and,  taken  to 
gether,  make  a  sort  of "  movie-picture  "  of  patriotic  and 
intense  human  interest. 

In  style  as  much  as  in  subject-matter  it  excelled 
all  other  addresses  of  his  own  or  any  other  time.  This 
is  the  more  significant  because  his  specific  instructions 
were  to  submit  "a  few  appropriate  remarks." 

The  orator  of  the  day  was  chosen  from  New  Eng 
land's  universities,  her  culture,  her  scholarship,  her 
statesmen,  Edward  Everett.  He  talked  two  hours  and 
most  of  what  he  said  has  been  forgotten.  Lincoln 
talked  two  minutes  and  what  he  said  not  only  has 
become  a  classic,  but  is  hanging  upon  the  walls  to 
day  of  more  than  a  million  homes,  not  only  in  America 
but  throughout  the  world. 

In  a  two-minute  speech  he  used  the  central  idea 
ten  tunes,  and  the  same  central  word  six  times — the 
word  "dedicate." 

Surely,  at  some  time  or  other  in  his  earlier  life,  this 
word  must  have  made  a  very  profound  impression 
upon  him  to  have  been  put  so  prominently  in  the 
Gettysburg  address. 

When,  where,  and  how  had  he  come  in  contact  with 
it? 

We  have  already  seen  how  in  his  early  days  he  be 
came  an  ardent  student  of  the  Declaration  of  Inde 
pendence.  We  have  seen  in  the  chapter,  "Lincoln's 
Interpretation  of  the  Declaration  of  Independence," 
how  frequently  he  referred  to  it,  how  thoroughly  he 
analyzed  it,  what  a  wonderful  impression  it  made  upon 
his  mind  and  soul. 

It  is  more  than  passing  coincidence  that  the  closing 


GETTYSBURG  ORATION  229 

words  of  that  Declaration  of  Independence  were  de 
voted  to  a  dedication  of  the  Colonists,  their  lives  and 
treasures,  to  the  cause  for  which  it  stood. 

It  has  been  said  that  Lincoln's  effort  was  a  sad  dis 
appointment  to  him,  and  that  he  was  greatly  depressed 
as  the  result  of  the  utter  absence  of  applause  during 
the  address.  This,  however,  would  not  be  strange, 
even  if  true,  owing  to  the  occasion  and  the  solemnity 
of  the  environment,  but  the  New  York  Tribune  of  the 
following  day  shows  " applause"  five  different  times 
during  the  address,  and  "long  continued  applause" 
at  the  close.  If  Lincoln  at  any  time  spoke  deprecat- 
ingly  of  his  effort  it  was  only  because  it  was  more  or 
less  characteristic  of  him. 

It  has  been  said  that  Lincoln's  effort  was  a  sad  dis 
appointment  to  Everett.  This  is  wholly  disproved 
by  the  letter  that  Everett  took  the  pains  to  write  Lin 
coln  the  day  following  the  address,  in  which  he  said, 
among  other  things : 

"Permit  me  to  express  my  great  admiration  of  the 
thoughts  expressed  by  you  with  such  eloquent  sim 
plicity  and  appropriateness  at  the  consecration  of  the 
cemetery.  I  should  be  glad  if  I  could  flatter  myself 
that  I  came  as  near  to  the  central  idea  of  the  occasion 
in  two  hours  as  you  did  in  two  minutes." 

I  have  gone  into  the  detail  of  analysis  on  the  Gettys 
burg  speech  in  order  to  furnish  a  model  for  a  similar 
analysis  of  Lincoln's  other  speeches. 

They  are  too  long  to  permit  of  such  separate  de 
tailed  dissection,  as  has  been  applied  to  this  brief  ora 
tion.  But  if  they  shall  be  studied  and  separated  into 
their  natural  and  logical  parts,  it  will  be  seen  that 
in  the  main  they  pursue  the  same  unity  of  thought, 
simplicity  of  speech,  clearness  and  conclusiveness  in 


230  THE  VOICE   OF  LINCOLN 

demonstration,  sincerity  of  dedication  that  is  so  strik 
ingly  characteristic  in  the  Gettysburg  address. 

The  student,  young  and  old,  in  or  out  of  high  school 
or  college,  cannot  more  pleasurably  nor  profitably 
employ  his  mind  than  by  a  careful  study  and  analysis 
of  many  of  the  other  great  speeches  and  papers  of 
Abraham  Lincoln. 

This  greatest  of  the  world's  orations  deserves  a  trib 
ute  from  one  of  the  world's  greatest  orators.  Colonel 
Ingersoll  said  of  the  Gettysburg  address: 

"If  you  wish  to  know  the  difference  between  an 
orator  and  an  elocutionist — between  what  is  felt  and 
what  is  said — between  what  the  heart  and  brain  can 
do  together  and  what  the  brain  can  do  alone — read 
Lincoln's  wondrous  words  at  Gettysburg,  and  then 
the  speech  of  Edward  Everett.  The  oration  of  Lin 
coln  will  never  be  forgotten.  It  will  live  until  languages 
are  dead  and  lips  are  dust.  The  speech  of  Everett 
will  never  be  read.  The  elocutionists  believe  in  the 
virtue  of  voice,  the  sublimity  of  syntax,  the  majesty 
of  long  sentences,  and  the  genius  of  gesture.  The 
orator  loves  the  real,  the  simple,  the  natural.  He 
places  the  thought  above  all.  He  knows  that  the 
greatest  ideas  should  be  expressed  in  the  shortest  words 
—that  the  greatest  statues  need  the  least  drapery." 


CHAPTER  XVII 
LINCOLN'S  GREAT  SPRINGFIELD  SPEECH 

AGAIN  it  is  strikingly  demonstrated  that  his  argu 
ments  on  law,  government,  or  politics  were  usually 
bottomed  upon  some  primary  legal  principle  from  one 
of  the  great  masters  of  the  law,  some  parable  or  refer 
ence  from  the  Bible,  or  some  political  proposition  from 
the  Declaration  of  Independence. 

No  better  illustration  can  be  found  than  the  Spring 
field  speech  of  1858,  which  became  known  as  the 
" House  Divided  Against  Itself'7  speech. 

That  speech  occupies  such  a  conspicuous  and  critical 
position  in  the  political  life  of  Lincoln  that  it  deserves 
special  mention  here. 

Upon  Lincoln's  return  to  Springfield  in  1849,  at  the 
close  of  his  one  term  in  Congress,  we  have  already 
noted  how  he  had  devoted,  yes,  had  dedicated  him 
self  to  the  practice  of  the  law  and  to  its  deeper  and 
broader  study.  He  had  little  thought  of  ever  again 
taking  an  active  hand  in  the  politics  of  the  times,  but 
the  Kansas-Nebraska  Bill  of  1854  had  so  aroused  his 
love  for  human  freedom  and  his  hatred  of  slavery  that 
he  soon  again  found  himself  in  the  political  maelstrom. 

The  Democratic  party  had  lost  control  of  the  State 
Legislature  of  Illinois  in  that  election.  Lincoln  was  the 
Whig  candidate  for  the  United  States  senatorship. 
Feeling  that  if  he  continued  in  the  contest  he  would 
endanger  the  election  of  an  antislavery  senator,  Lin 
coln  magnanimously  withdrew  and  urged  his  friends 

231 


232  THE  VOICE  OF  LINCOLN 

to  support  Trumbull,  an  anti-Nebraska  Democrat, 
when,  by  every  fair  consideration  of  politics,  Lincoln 
should  then  have  been  the  United  States  senator. 

After  that  campaign  he  continued  largely  in  the 
practice  of  the  law  until  1858,  when  Senator  Douglas, 
his  old-tune  rival,  was  again  a  candidate  for  re-election. 
In  the  meantime  a  number  of  political  changes  had 
occurred.  Webster's  famous,  or  infamous  "7th  of 
March7'  speech,  wherein  he  apologized  and  trimmed 
for  all  his  past  position  against  slavery  and  lost  all  the 
political  prestige  he  had  ever  had  as  a  Whig  leader; 
Clay's  " Alabama"  letter  in  the  campaign  of  1844, 
which  characteristically  compromised  upon  the  grave 
cause  of  human  liberty,  and  other  like  subservience  to 
the  controlling  slave  power  of  the  day,  had  left  the 
Whig  party  not  only  leaderless  but  issueless.  It  dis 
solved  and  died  as  it  deserved  to  die. 

Upon  its  ruins  rose  the  new  Republican  party  of 
1854  and  1856,  and  Lincoln  became  one  of  its  most 
active  members  and  leaders  in  the  State  of  Illinois. 

One  of  the  policies  to  which  the  new  party  was  com 
mitted  was  "to  arrest  the  further  spread  of  slavery," 
and  it  was  upon  this  proposition  that  Abraham  Lincoln 
prepared  his  great  Springfield  speech  in  June  of  1858. 

After  he  had  carefully  prepared  the  speech  and  re 
duced  it  to  manuscript  he  read  it  to  a  number  of  his 
friends.  Most  of  them  openly  condemned  it  and  none 
approved  it.  One  said  "Damned  fool  utterance," 
another  said,  "Impolitic,"  another  said,  "It  gives  un 
necessary  offense,"  another  said,  "It  is  all  right,  but 
it  is  ahead  of  its  tune,"  and  so  on. 

But  Lincoln  said: 

"My  friends,  this  thing  has  been  retarded  long 
enough.  The  time  has  come  when  these  sentiments 


HIS   GREAT   SPRINGFIELD   SPEECH    233 

should  be  uttered,  and  if  it  is  decreed  that  I  should  go 
down  because  of  this  speech,  then  let  me  go  down 
linked  to  the  truth ;  let  me  die  in  the  advocacy  of  what 
is  just  and  right." 

The  first  paragraph  was  the  one  that  was  especially 
"impolitic."  If  that  had  been  omitted  there  would 
have  been  no  serious  objection  to  the  speech  by  his 
party  friends. 

The  speech  in  full  is  as  follows : 

"Mr.  President  and  Gentlemen  of  the  Convention: 

1.  "If  we  could  first  know  where  we  are,  and  whither 
we  are  tending,  we  could  better  judge  what  to  do,  and 
how  to  do  it.     We  are  now  far  into  the  fifth  year,  since 
a  policy  was  initiated  with  the  avowed  object  and  con 
fident  promise  of  putting  an  end  to  slavery  agitation. 
Under  the  operation  of  that  policy,  that  agitation  has 
not  only  not  ceased  but  has  constantly  augmented.     In 
my  opinion  it  will  not  cease  until  a  crisis  shall  have 
been  reached  and  passed.     'A  house  divided  against 
itself  cannot  stand.'     I  believe  this  government  can 
not  endure  permanently  half  slave  and  half  free.     I  do 
not  expect  the  Union  to  be  dissolved — I  do  not  expect 
the  house  to  fall — but  I  do  expect  it  will  cease  to  be 
divided.     It  will  become  all  one  thing,  or  all  the  other. 
Either  the  opponents  of  slavery  will  arrest  the  further 
spread  of  it,  and  place  it  where  the  public  mind  shall 
rest  in  the  belief  that  it  is  in  the  course  of  ultimate  ex 
tinction;  or  its  advocates  will  push  it  forward  till  it 
shall  become  alike  lawful  in  all  the  States,  old  as  well 
as  new,  North  as  well  as  South. 

"Have  we  no  tendency  to  the  latter  condition? 

2.  "Let  any  one  who  doubts  carefully  contemplate 
that  now  almost  complete  legal  combination — piece  of 


234  THE  VOICE   OF  LINCOLN 

machinery,  so  to  speak — compounded  of  the  Nebraska 
doctrine  and  the  Dred  Scott  decision.  Let  him  con 
sider  not  only  what  work  the  machinery  is  adapted  to 
do,  and  how  well  adapted;  but  also  let  him  study  the 
history  of  the  construction,  and  trace,  if  he  can,  or 
rather  fail,  if  he  can,  to  trace  the  evidences  of  design 
and  concert  of  action  among  its  chief  architects,  from 
the  beginning. 

3.  "The  new  year  of  1854  found  slavery  excluded 
from  more  than  half  the  States  by  State  constitutions, 
and  from  most  of  the  national  territory  by  congressional 
prohibition.     Four  days  later  commenced  the  struggle 
which  ended  in  repealing  that  congressional  prohibition. 
This  opened  all  the  national  territory  to  slavery,  and 
was  the  first  point  gained. 

4.  "But,  so  far,  Congress  only  had  acted;  and  an 
indorsement  by  the  people,  real  or  apparent,  was  in 
dispensable  to  save  the  point  already  gained  and  give 
chance  for  more. 

5.  "This  necessity  had  not  been  overlooked,  but  had 
been  provided  for,  as  well  as  might  be,  in  the  notable 
argument  of  '  squatter  sovereignty/  otherwise  called 
'  sacred  right  of  self-government/  which  latter  phrase, 
though  expressive  of  the  only  rightful  basis  of  any 
government,  was  so  perverted  in  this  attempted  use  of 
it  as  to  amount  to  just  this:  That  if  any  one  man  choose 
to  enslave  another,  no  third  man  shall  be  allowed  to 
object.     That  argument  was  incorporated  into  the  Ne 
braska  bill  itself,  in  the  language  which  follows:  'It 
being  the  true  intent  and  meaning  of  this  act  not  to 
legislate  slavery  into  any  Territory  or  State,  nor  to 
exclude  it  therefrom;  but  to  leave  the  people  thereof 
perfectly  free  to  form  and  regulate  their  domestic  in 
stitutions  in  their  own  way,  subject  only  to  the  Con- 


HIS  GREAT   SPRINGFIELD   SPEECH    235 

stitution  of  the  United  States.'  Then  opened  the  roar 
of  loose  declamation  in  favor  of  'squatter  sovereignty' 
and  ' sacred  right  of  self-government.'  'But/  said  op 
position  members,  'let  us  amend  the  bill  so  as  to  ex 
pressly  declare  that  the  people  of  the  Territory  may 
exclude  slavery.'  'Not  we,'  said  the  friends  of  the 
measure;  and  down  they  voted  the  amendment. 

6.  "While  the  Nebraska  bill  was  passing  through 
Congress  a  law  case  involving  the  question  of  a  negro's 
freedom,  by  reason  of  his  owner  having  voluntarily 
taken  him  first  into  a  free  State  and  then  into  a  Ter 
ritory  covered  by  the  congressional  prohibition,  and 
held  him  as  a  slave  for  a  long  time  in  each,  was  passing 
through  the  United  States  Circuit  Court  for  the  Dis 
trict  of  Missouri;  and  both  Nebraska  bill  and  lawsuit 
were  brought  to  a  decision  in  the  same  month  of  May, 
1854.     The  negro's  name  was  Dred  Scott,  which  name 
now  designates  the  decision  finally  made  in  the  case. 
Before  the  then  next  presidential  election,  the  law  case 
came  to  and  was  argued  in  the  Supreme  Court  of  the 
United  States;  but  the  decision  of  it  was  deferred  until 
after  the  election.     Still,  before  the  election,  Senator 
Trumbull,  on  the  floor  of  the  Senate,  requested  the 
leading  advocate  of  the  Nebraska  bill   to   state  his 
opinion  whether  the  people  of  a  Territory  can  consti 
tutionally  exclude  slavery  from  their  limits;  and  the 
latter  answered:   'That  is  a  question  for  the  Supreme 
Court.' 

7.  "The  election  came.    Mr.  Buchanan  was  elected, 
and  the  indorsement,  such  as  it  was  secured.     That 
was  the  second  point  gained.    The  indorsement,  how 
ever,  fell  short  of  a  clear  popular  majority  by  nearly 
four  hundred  thousand  votes,   and  so,  perhaps,  was 
not   overwhelmingly   reliable   and   satisfactory.      The 


236  THE  VOICE   OF  LINCOLN 

outgoing  President,  in  his  last  annual  message,  as 
impressively  as  possible  echoed  back  upon  the  people 
the  weight  and  authority  of  the  indorsement.  The 
Supreme  Court  met  again;  did  not  announce  their 
decision,  but  ordered  a  reargument.  The  presidential 
inauguration  came,  and  still  no  decision  of  the  court; 
but  the  incoming  President  in  his  inaugural  address 
fervently  exhorted  the  people  to  abide  by  the  forth 
coming  decision,  whatever  it  might  be.  Then,  in  a 
few  days,  came  the  decision. 

8.  "The  reputed  author  of  the  Nebraska  bill  finds 
an  early  occasion  to  make  a  speech  at  this  capital  in 
dorsing  the  Dred  Scott  decision,  and  vehemently  de 
nouncing  all  opposition  to  it.     The  new  President, 
too,  seizes  the  early  occasion  of  the  Silliman  letter  to 
indorse  and  strongly  construe  that  decision,  and  to 
express  his  astonishment  that  any  different  view  had 
ever  been  entertained ! 

9.  "At  length  a  squabble  springs  up  between  the 
President  and  the  author  of  the  Nebraska  bill,  on  the 
mere  question  of  fact,  whether  the  Lecompton  con 
stitution  was  or  was  not,  in  any  just  sense,  made  by 
the  people  of  Kansas;    and  in  that  quarrel  the  latter 
declares  that  all  he  wants  is  a  fair  vote  for  the  people, 
and  that  he  cares  not  whether  slavery  be  voted  down 
or  voted  up.    I  do  not  understand  his  declaration  that 
he  cares  not  whether  slavery  be  voted  down  or  voted 
up  to  be  intended  by  him  other  than  as  an  apt  defini 
tion  of  the  policy  he  would  impress  upon  the  public 
mind — the  principle  for  which  he  declares  he  has  suf 
fered  so  much,  and  is  ready  to  suffer  to  the  end.    And 
well  may  he  cling  to  that  principle.     If  he  has  any 
parental  feeling,  well  may  he  cling  to  it.     That  prin 
ciple  is  the  only  shred  left  of  his  original  Nebraska 


HIS  GREAT  SPRINGFIELD   SPEECH    237 

doctrine.  Under  the  Dred  Scott  decision  'squatter 
sovereignty'  squatted  out  of  existence,  tumbled  down 
like  temporary  scaffolding, — like  the  mold  at  the  foun 
dry,  served  through  one  blast  and  fell  back  into  loose 
sand, — helped  to  carry  an  election,  and  then  kicked 
to  the  winds.  His  late  joint  struggle  with  the  Repub 
licans  against  the  Lecompton  constitution  involves 
nothing  of  the  original  Nebraska  doctrine.  That 
struggle  was  made  on  a  point — the  right  of  a  people 
to  make  their  own  constitution — upon  which  he  and 
the  Republicans  have  never  differed. 

10.  "The  several  points  of  the  Dred  Scott  decision, 
in  connection  with  Senator  Douglas's  '  care  not '  policy, 
constitute  the  piece  of  machinery  in  its  present  state 
of  advancement.  This  was  the  third  point  gained. 
The  working  points  of  that  machinery  are: 

"(1)  That  no  negro  slave,  imported  as  such  from 
Africa,  and  no  descendant  of  such  slave,  can  ever  be 
a  citizen  of  any  State,  in  the  sense  of  that  term  as  used 
in  the  Constitution  of  the  United  States.  This  point 
is  made  in  order  to  deprive  the  negro  in  every  possible 
event  of  the  benefit  of  that  provision  of  the  United 
States  Constitution  which  declares  that  'the  citizens 
of  each  State  shall  be  entitled  to  all  the  privileges  and 
immunities  of  citizens  in  the  several  States.' 

"(2)  That,  'subject  to  the  Constitution  of  the 
United  States,'  neither  Congress  nor  a  territorial  legis 
lature  can  exclude  slavery  from  any  United  States 
Territory.  This  point  is  made  in  order  that  individual 
men  may  fill  up  the  Territories  with  slaves,  without 
danger  of  losing  them  as  property  and  thus  enhance 
the  chances  of  permanency  to  the  institution  through 
all  the  future. 

"  (3)  That  whether  the  holding  a  negro  in  actual 


238  THE  VOICE  OF  LINCOLN 

slavery  in  a  free  State  makes  him  free  as  against  the 
holder,  the  United  States  courts  will  not  decide,  but 
will  leave  to  be  decided  by  the  courts  of  any  slave 
State  the  negro  may  be  forced  into  by  the  master. 
This  point  is  made  not  to  be  pressed  immediately, 
but,  if  acquiesced  in  for  a  while,  and  apparently  in 
dorsed  by  the  people  at  an  election,  then  to  sustain 
the  logical  conclusion  that  what  Dred  Scott's  master 
might  lawfully  do  with  Dred  Scott  in  the  free  State 
of  Illinois,  every  other  master  may  lawfully  do  with 
any  other  one  or  one  thousand  slaves  in  Illinois  or  in 
any  other  free  State. 

11.  "  Auxiliary  to  all  this,  and  working  hand  in 
hand  with  it,  the  Nebraska  doctrine,  or  what  is  left 
of  it,  is  to  educate  and  mold  public  opinion,  at  least 
Northern  public  opinion,  not  to  care  whether  slavery 
is  voted  down  or  voted  up.  This  shows  exactly  where 
we  now  are,  and  partially,  also,  whither  we  are  tend 
ing. 

"12.  It  will  throw  additional  light  on  the  latter,  to 
go  back  and  run  the  mind  over  the  string  of  historical 
facts  already  stated.  Several  things  will  now  appear 
less  dark  and  mysterious  than  they  did  when  they 
were  transpiring.  The  people  were  to  be  left  'per 
fectly  free/  '  subject  only  to  the  Constitution/  What 
the  Constitution  had  to  do  with  it  outsiders  could 
not  then  see.  Plainly  enough  now,  it  was  an  exactly 
fitted  niche  for  the  Dred  Scott  decision  to  afterward 
come  in,  and  declare  the  perfect  freedom  of  the  people 
to  be  just  no  freedom  at  all.  Why  was  the  amendment 
expressly  declaring  the  right  of  the  people  voted  down  ? 
Plainly  enough  now,  the  adoption  of  it  would  have 
spoiled  the  niche  for  the  Dred  Scott  decision.  Why 
was  the  court  decision  held  up  ?  Why  even  a  senator's 


HIS  GREAT   SPRINGFIELD   SPEECH    239 

individual  opinion  withheld  till  after  the  presidential 
election?  Plainly  enough  now,  the  speaking  out  then 
would  have  damaged  the  ' perfectly  free'  argument 
upon  which  the  election  was  to  be  carried.  Why  the 
outgoing  President's  felicitation  on  the  indorsement? 
Why  the  delay  of  a  reargument?  Why  the  incoming 
President's  advance  exhortation  in  favor  of  the  de 
cision  ?  These  things  look  like  the  cautious  patting  and 
petting  of  a  spirited  horse  preparatory  to  mounting 
him,  when  it  is  dreaded  that  he  may  give  the  rider 
a  fall.  And  why  the  hasty  after-endorsement  of  the 
decision  by  the  President  and  others? 

13.  "  We  cannot  absolutely  know  that  all  these  exact 
adaptations  are  the  result  of  preconcert.     But  when 
we  see  a  lot  of  framed  timbers,  different  portions  of 
which  we  know  have  been  gotten  out  at  different  times 
and    places    and    by    different    workmen, — Stephen, 
Franklin,   Roger,   and  James,   for  instance, — and  we 
see  these  timbers  joined  together,  and  see  they  exactly 
make  the  frame  of  a  house  or  a  mill,  all  the  tenons  and 
mortises  exactly  fitting,  and  all  the  lengths  and  pro 
portions  of  the  different  pieces  exactly  adapted  to 
their  respective  places,  and  not  a  piece  too  many  or 
too  few,  not  omitting  even  scaffolding — or,  if  a  single 
piece  be  lacking,  we  see  the  place  in  the  frame  exactly 
fitted  and  prepared  yet  to  bring  such  piece  in — in 
such  a  case  we  find  it  impossible  not  to  believe  that 
Stephen  and  Franklin  and  Roger  and  James  all  under 
stood  one  another  from  the  beginning,  and  all  worked 
upon  a  common  plan  or  draft  drawn  up  before  the 
first  blow  was  struck. 

14.  "It    should   not    be    overlooked    that,    by    the 
Nebraska  bill,  the  people  of  a  State  as  well  as  Terri 
tory  were  to  be  left  ' perfectly  free/  '  subject  only  to 


240  THE  VOICE  OF  LINCOLN 

the  Constitution.7  Why  mention  a  State?  They 
were  legislating  for  Territories,  and  not  for  or  about 
States.  Certainly  the  people  of  a  State  are  and  ought 
to  be  subject  to  the  Constitution  of  the  United  States; 
but  why  is  mention  of  this  lugged  into  this  merely 
territorial  law?  Why  are  the  people  of  a  Territory 
and  the  people  of  a  State  therein  lumped  together, 
and  their  relation  to  the  Constitution  therein  treated 
as  being  precisely  the  same?  While  the  opinion  of 
the  court,  by  Chief  Justice  Taney,  in  the  Dred  Scott 
case,  and  the  separate  opinions  of  all  the  concurring 
judges,  expressly  declare  that  the  Constitution  of  the 
United  States  neither  permits  Congress  nor  a  terri 
torial  legislature  to  exclude  slavery  from  any  United 
States  Territory,  they  all  omit  to  declare  whether  or 
not  the  same  Constitution  permits  a  State,  or  the 
people  of  a  State,  to  exclude  it.  Possibly,  this  is  a 
mere  omission;  but  who  can  be  quite  sure,  if  McLean 
or  Curtis  had  sought  to  get  into  the  opinion  a  declara 
tion  of  unlimited  power  in  the  people  of  a  State  to 
exclude  slavery  from  their  limits,  just  as  Chase  and 
Mace  sought  to  get  such  declaration,  in  behalf  of  the 
people  of  a  Territory,  into  the  Nebraska  bill — I  ask, 
who  can  be  quite  sure  that  it  would  not  have  been 
voted  down  in  the  one  case  as  it  had  been  in  the  other  ? 
The  nearest  approach  to  the  point  of  declaring  the 
power  of  a  State  over  slavery  is  made  by  Judge  Nelson. 
He  approaches  it  more  than  once,  using  the  precise 
idea,  and  almost  the  language  too,  of  the  Nebraska 
act.  On  one  occasion  his  exact  language  is:  t Except 
in  case  where  the  power  is  restrained  by  the  Constitu 
tion  of  the  United  States,  the  law  of  the  State  is  supreme 
over  the  subject  of  slavery  within  its  jurisdiction/ 
In  what  cases  the  power  of  the  States  is  so  restrained  by 


HIS   GREAT   SPRINGFIELD   SPEECH    241 

the  United  States  Constitution  is  left  an  open  question, 
precisely  as  the  same  question  as  to  the  restraint  on  the 
power  of  the  Territories  was  left  open  in  the  Nebraska 
act.  Put  this  and  that  together,  and  we  have  another 
nice  little  niche,  which  we  may,  ere  long,  see  filled  with 
another  Supreme  Court  decision  declaring  that  the 
Constitution  of  the  United  States  does  not  permit  a 
State  to  exclude  slavery  from  its  limits.  And  this 
may  especially  be  expected  if  the  doctrine  of  'care 
not  whether  slavery  be  voted  down  or  voted  up'  shall 
gain  upon  the  public  mind  sufficiently  to  give  promise 
that  such  a  decision  can  be  maintained  when  made. 

15.  "Such  a  decision  is  all  that  slavery  now  lacks 
of  being  alike  lawful  in  all  the  States.     Welcome,  or 
unwelcome,    such   decision   is   probably   coming,    and 
will  soon  be  upon  us,  unless  the  power  of  the  present 
political  dynasty  shall  be  met  and  overthrown.     We 
shall  lie  down  pleasantly  dreaming  that  the  people 
of  Missouri  are  on  the  verge  of  making  their  State 
free,  and  we  shall  awake  to  the  reality  instead  that 
the  Supreme  Court  has  made  Illinois  a  slave  State. 
To  meet  and  overthrow  the  power  of  that  dynasty  is 
the  work  now  before  all  those  who  would  prevent  that 
consummation.     That  is  what  we  have  to  do.     How 
can  we  best  do  it? 

16.  "  There  are  those  who  denounce  us  openly  to 
their  own  friends,  and  yet  whisper  us  softly  that  Senator 
Douglas  is  the  aptest  instrument  there  is  with  which 
to  effect  that  object.     They  wish  us  to  infer  all  from 
the  fact  that  he  now  has  a  little  quarrel  with  the  present 
head  of  the  dynasty;   and  that  he  has  regularly  voted 
with  us  on  a  single  point  upon  which  he  and  we  have 
never  differed.    They  remind  us  that  he  is  a  great  man 
and  that  the  largest  of  us  are  very  small  ones.     Let 


242  THE  VOICE   OF  LINCOLN 

this  be  granted.  But  'a  living  dog  is  better  than  a 
dead  lion/  Judge  Douglas,  if  not  a  dead  lion  for  this 
work,  is  at  least  a  caged  and  toothless  one.  How  can 
he  oppose  the  advances  of  slavery?  He  don't  care 
anything  about  it.  His  avowed  mission  is  impressing 
the  'public  heart'  to  care  nothing  about  it.  A  leading 
Douglas  newspaper  thinks  Douglas's  superior  talent 
will  be  needed  to  resist  the  revival  of  the  African  slave- 
trade.  Does  Douglas  believe  an  effort  to  revive  that 
trade  is  approaching?  He  has  not  said  so.  Does  he 
really  think  so  ?  But  if  it  is,  how  can  he  resist  it  ?  For 
years  he  has  labored  to  prove  it  a  sacred  right  of  white 
men  to  take  negro  slaves  into  the  new  Territories.  Can 
he  possibly  show  that  it  is  less  a  sacred  right  to  buy 
them  where 'they  can  be  bought  cheapest?  And  un 
questionably  they  can  be  bought  cheaper  in  Africa 
than  in  Virginia.  He  has  done  all  in  his  power  to  re 
duce  the  whole  question  of  slavery  to  one  of  a  mere 
right  of  property;  and  as  such,  how  can  he  oppose  the 
foreign  slave-trade?  How  can  he  refuse  that  trade 
in  that  ' property'  shall  be  ' perfectly  free,'  unless  he 
does  it  as  a  protection  to  the  home  production?  And 
as  the  home  producers  will  probably  not  ask  the  protec 
tion,  he  will  be  wholly  without  a  ground  of  opposition. 
17.  "Senator  Douglas  holds,  we  know,  that  a  man 
may  rightfully  be  wiser  to-day  than  he  was  yesterday 
—that  he  may  rightfully  change  when  he  finds  himself 
wrong.  But  can  we,  for  that  reason,  run  ahead,  and 
infer  that  he  will  make  any  particular  change  of  which 
he,  himself,  has  given  no  intimation?  Can  we  safely 
base  our  action  upon  any  such  vague  inference?  Now, 
as  ever,  I  wish  not  to  misrepresent  Judge  Douglas's 
position,  question  his  motives,  or  do  aught  that  can 
be  personally  offensive  to  him.  Whenever,  if  ever, 


HIS   GREAT   SPRINGFIELD   SPEECH    243 

he  and  we  can  come  together  on  principle  so  that  our 
great  cause  may  have  assistance  from  his  great  ability, 
I  hope  to  have  interposed  no  adventitious  obstacle. 
But  clearly,  he  is  not  now  with  us — he  does  not  pre 
tend  to  be — he  does  not  promise  ever  to  be. 

18.  "Our  cause,  then,  must  be  intrusted  to,  and 
conducted  by,  its  own  undoubted  friends — those  whose 
hands  are  free,  whose  hearts  are  in  the  work,  who  do 
care  for  the  result.  Two  years  ago  the  Republicans 
of  the  nation  mustered  over  thirteen  hundred  thousand 
strong.  We  did  this  under  the  single  impulse  of  re 
sistance  to  a  common  danger,  with  every  external 
circumstance  against  us.  Of  strange,  discordant,  and 
even  hostile  elements,  we  gathered  from  the  four  winds, 
and  formed  and  fought  the  battle  through,  under  the 
constant  hot  fire  of  a  disciplined,  proud,  and  pampered 
enemy.  Did  we  brave  all  then  to  falter  now? — now, 
when  that  same  enemy  is  wavering,  dissevered,  and 
belligerent?  The  result  is  not  doubtful.  We  shall 
not  fail — if  we  stand  firm,  we  shall  not  fail.  Wise 
counsels  may  accelerate  or  mistakes  delay  it,  but, 
sooner  or  later,  the  victory  is  sure  to  come." 

The  speech  made  a  " profound  impression."  But  it 
did  much  more  than  that;  it  was  the  one  speech  dis 
cussed  not  only  in  Springfield  but  throughout  Illinois, 
and  more  or  less  throughout  the  North  and  even  parts 
of  the  South. 

Some  of  the  Republicans  were  considerably  dissatis 
fied  with  some  of  the  things  that  Lincoln  had  said. 
Some  of  his  most  intimate  friends  remonstrated  with 
him  as  to  his  political  indiscretion.  To  one  of  these 
critics  he  said: 

"If  I  had  to  draw  a  pen  across  my  record  and  erase 
my  whole  life  from  sight  and  I  had  one  poor  gift  or 


244  THE  VOICE  OF  LINCOLN 

choice  left  as  to  what  I  should  save  from  the  wreck  I 
should  choose  that  speech  and  leave  it  to  the  world 
unerased." 

In  my  judgment  this  speech  did  more  in  the  making 
of  the  man  Lincoln,  the  logician  Lincoln,  and  repre 
sented  more  of  the  lawyer  Lincoln  and  the  political 
general  Lincoln  than  any  other  speech  he  ever  made. 

This  speech  was  the  underpinning  of  the  Lincoln- 
Douglas  debates.  In  conjunction  with  the  Cooper 
Union  speech,  treated  in  a  separate  chapter,  it  had 
more  to  do  with  his  nomination  for  the  presidency 
than  any  other  words  he  ever  uttered. 

Let  us  analyze  the  speech  as  the  lawyer  and  logician 
uttered  it. 

Note  that  in  the  very  first  paragraph  of  this  speech 
he  plants  himself  squarely  upon  a  proposition  from 
Holy  Writ — Matthew,  12th  chapter,  25th  verse: 

"  And  Jesus  knew  their  thoughts  and  said  unto  them, 
every  kingdom  divided  against  itself  is  brought  to 
desolation;  and  every  city  or  house  divided  against  it 
self  shall  not  stand." 

The  verity  of  that  proposition  had  not  been  ques 
tioned  for  over  eighteen  centuries  and  Lincoln  did  not 
think  it  could  be  successfully  questioned  now;  so  he 
bottomed  his  great  speech  upon  that  elementary  prop 
osition  as  announced  by  Jesus  of  Nazareth  when  he 
was  reproving  the  Pharisees  of  old.  As  a  corollary  to 
that  proposition  he  says : 

"  Either  the  opponents  of  slavery  will  arrest  the 
further  spread  of  it  and  place  it  where  the  public  mind 
shall  rest  in  the  belief  that  it  is  in  the  course  of  ultimate 
extinction  or  its  advocates  will  push  it  forward  until 
it  shall  become  alike  lawful  in  all  the  States,  old  as 
well  as  new,  North  as  well  as  South. 


HIS   GREAT   SPRINGFIELD   SPEECH    245 

"Have  we  no  tendency  to  the  latter  condition?" 
Here  now  is  his  basic  proposition: 

1.  The  "half  slave"  and  "half  free"  constitute  the 
"divided  house." 

2.  Such  a  house  cannot  stand — "it  will  become  all 
one  thing  or  all  the  other." 

3.  The  tendency  of  the  times  is  to  "push  it   (sla 
very)  forward  until  it  shall  become  alike  lawful  in  all 
the  States." 

As  discussed  before,  Lincoln's  method  was  so  ex 
ceedingly  simple  that  we  naturally  overlook  it. 

First  comes  his  statement  of  fact,  next  his  declara 
tion  of  the  principles  involved,  then  he  proceeds  to 
demonstrate  the  soundness  of  his  position  as  to  the 
facts  and  the  application  of  his  principles  thereto. 

Throughout  his  public  discussions  "declaration" 
comes  first,  "demonstration"  next,  and  very  shortly, 
if  the  cause  be  near  his  heart  as  this  was,  there  follows 
a  "dedication"  to  the  cause. 

From  the  second  to  the  twelfth  paragraph,  inclusive, 
he  presents  his  evidence,  and  then  demonstrates  the 
fact  to  be  that  there  was  a  "legal  combination — ' piece 
of  machinery/  so  to  speak — compounded  of  the  Ne 
braska  doctrine  (legislative)  and  the  Dred  Scott  deci 
sion"  (judicial  decree)  all  adapted  to  and  conducive  to 
such  extension  and  nationalization  of  slavery. 

Having  now  laid  the  groundwork  by  strong  circum 
stantial  proof,  he  boldly  makes  the  charge  contained  in 
paragraph  13  as  follows: 

"We  cannot  absolutely  know  that  all  these  exact 
adaptations  are  the  result  of  preconcert.  But  when 
we  see  a  lot  of  framed  timbers,  different  portions  of 
which  we  know  have  been  gotten  out  at  different  times 
and  places  and  by  different  workmen, — Stephen,  Frank- 


246  THE  VOICE   OF   LINCOLN 

lin,  Roger,  and  James,  for  instance, — and  we  see  these 
timbers  joined  together,  and  see  they  exactly  make 
the  frame  of  a  house  or  a  mill,  all  the  tenons  and  mor 
tises  exactly  fitting,  and  all  the  lengths  and  proportions 
of  the  different  pieces  exactly  adapted  to  their  respec 
tive  places,  and  not  a  piece  too  many  or  too  few,  not 
omitting  even  scaffolding — or,  if  a  single  piece  be  lack 
ing,  we  see  the  place  in  the  frame  exactly  fitted  and 
prepared  yet  to  bring  such  piece  in — in  such  a  case  we 
find  it  impossible  not  to  believe  that  Stephen  and 
Franklin  and  Roger  and  James  all  understood  one  an 
other  from  the  beginning,  and  all  worked  upon  a  com 
mon  plan  or  draft  drawn  up  before  the  first  blow  was 
struck." 

That  was  a  heroic  thing  to  say.  But  Lincoln  felt 
that  he  had  demonstrated  it  as  conclusively  as  any 
political  policy  was  capable  of  demonstration,  and 
suffice  it  to  say,  there  never  was  any  serious  and 
successful  attempt  made  to  answer  it.  Of  course  it 
was  categorically  denied.  The  opposition  undertook 
to  laugh  it  out  of  court,  but  the  charge  stuck.  It 
had  all  the  earmarks  of  truth  in  it  and  the  people 
believed  it. 

Note  the  concrete  noun  that  he  uses  as  the  base  of 
every  thought  and  then  he  hitches  up  to  the  concrete 
noun  the  active  verb,  so  that  you  get  a  sort  of  picture 
upon  the  mental  screen.  In  this  paragraph  you  can 
see  the  President  of  the  United  States,  James  Buchanan, 
and  his  predecessor,  Franklin  Pierce,  confer  with  the 
judge  of  the  Supreme  Court,  Roger  B.  Taney,  and  the 
Democratic  legislative  leader,  Stephen  A.  Douglas,  co- 
laboring  on  a  policy  to  nationalize  slavery  throughout 
North  and  South,  East  and  West. 

In  paragraph  14  Lincoln  then  attacks  the  Dred  Scott 


HIS  GREAT   SPRINGFIELD   SPEECH    247 

decision,  which  was  a  part  of  this  political  conspiracy 
to  fasten  slavery  upon  the  people  against  their  will. 

The  15th  paragraph  anticipates  another  decision  to 
fill  "the  niche"  considerately  left  open  to  complete  the 
conspiracy  announced  in  paragraph  13. 

Again,  here  comes  political  generalship.  Lincoln 
realized,  as  no  other  man  did,  that  great  effort  would  be 
made  in  behalf  of  Senator  Douglas,  because  of  his  hav 
ing  taken  a  stand  against  the  Lecompton  Constitution 
and  against  the  administration's  effort  to  have  that 
constitution  ratified  by  the  people  of  Kansas.  There 
fore,  some  would  say  that  Senator  Douglas  was  "the 
aptest  instrument  to  overthrow  the  power  of  that 
dynasty,"  though,  as  Lincoln  charged,  he  was  one  of 
the  conspirators  to  extend  and  perpetuate  the  slave 
power. 

Lincoln  aptly  asks: 

"How  can  he  oppose  the  advances  of  slavery?  He 
don't  care  anything  about  it.  (Douglas  had  fre 
quently  said  he  didn't  care  whether  it  was  voted  up 
or  voted  down.)  His  avowed  mission  is  impressing 
the  ' public  heart'  to  care  nothing  about  it.  ...  For 
years  he  has  labored  to  prove  it  a  sacred  right  of  white 
men  to  take  negro  slaves  into  the  new  Territories. 
Can  he  possibly  show  that  it  is  less  a  sacred  right  to 
buy  them  where  they  can  be  bought  cheapest?  And 
unquestionably  they  can  be  bought  cheaper  in  Africa 
than  in  Virginia.  He  has  done  all  in  his  power  to 
reduce  the  whole  question  of  slavery  to  one  of  a  mere 
right  of  property." 

Lincoln  was  determined  that  the  issue  should  not  be 
misunderstood  by  the  people;  that  the  claim  made  that 
Senator  Douglas  had  changed  his  political  views  and 
that  he  was  entitled  to  change  them  should  not  fool 


248  THE  VOICE  OF  LINCOLN 

the  people,  and  upon  that  proposition  he  said,  in  para 
graph  17: 

"  Senator  Douglas  holds,  we  know,  that  a  man  may 
rightfully  be  wiser  to-day  than  he  was  yesterday — that 
he  may  rightfully  change  when  he  finds  himself  wrong. 
.  .  .  But  clearly,  he  is  not  now  with  us — he  does  not 
pretend  to  be — he  does  not  promise  ever  to  be." 

Lincoln  then  closes  with  paragraph  18,  which  is  so 
important  in  public  leadership  on  great  questions  to 
day  that  it  cannot  be  too  often  repeated.  He  says: 

"Our  cause,  then,  must  be  intrusted  to,  and  con 
ducted  by,  its  own  undoubted  friends — those  whose 
hands  are  free,  whose  hearts  are  in  the  work,  who  do 
care  for  the  result.  .  .  .  Did  we  brave  all  then  (two 
years  ago)  to  falter  now  ? — now,  when  that  same  enemy 
is  wavering,  dissevered,  and  belligerent?  The  result 
is  not  doubtful.  We  shall  not  fail — if  we  stand  firm, 
we  shall  not  fail.  Wise  counsels  may  accelerate  or 
mistakes  delay  it,  but,  sooner  or  later,  the  victory  is 
sure  to  come.'7 


CHAPTER  XVIII 
LINCOLN  AT  COOPER  UNION 

WHEN  is  a  defeat  not  a  defeat? 

Lincoln's  fight  for  the  faith  of  the  fathers  in  "  arresting 
the  further  spread  of  slavery,"  in  placing  slavery  where 
it  was  "in  the  course  of  ultimate  extinction,"  had  only 
begun. 

Temporarily  it  was  in  abeyance,  but  as  we  shall  soon 
see,  the  smouldering  fires  would  inevitably  break  forth 
in  the  great  contest  that  was  unavoidable — the  cam 
paign  of  1860. 

The  real  disaster  was  not  to  Lincoln's  political  pros 
pects,  but  really  to  his  financial.  In  a  letter  to  Chair 
man  Judd  of  the  Republican  State  Committee,  written 
at  the  close  of  that  campaign  in  1858,  Lincoln  said: 

"I  have  been  on  expense  so  long,  without  earning 
anything,  that  I  am  absolutely  without  money  now 
for  even  household  expenses.  Still,  if  you  can  put  in 
$250  for  me  towards  discharging  the  debt  of  the  com 
mittee,  I  will  allow  it  when  you  and  I  settle  the  private 
matter  between  us.  This,  with  what  I  have  already 
paid,  with  an  outstanding  note  of  mine,  will  exceed  my 
subscription  of  $500.  This,  too,  is  exclusive  of  my 
ordinary  expenses  during  the  campaign,  all  of  which, 
being  added  to  my  loss  of  time  and  business,  bears 
pretty  heavily  upon  one  no  better  off  than  I  am.  But 
as  I  had  the  post  of  honor,  it  is  not  for  me  to  be  over- 


nice." 


249 


250  THE  VOICE  OF  LINCOLN 

Herndon,  in  speaking  of  his  financial  situation  at 
this  tune,  says :  * 

"At  the  time  this  letter  was  written  his  property 
consisted  of  the  house  and  lot  on  which  he  lived,  a  few 
law  books  and  some  household  furniture.  He  owned 
a  small  tract  of  land  in  Iowa  which  yielded  him  noth 
ing,  and  the  annual  income  from  his  law  practice  did 
not  exceed  $3,000." 

During  the  following  winter  Lincoln  prepared  a  lec 
ture  on  "  inventions. "  After  delivering  it  two  or  three 
times  it  proved  such  a  flat  failure  that  he  abandoned 
the  lecture  platform. 

Mr.  Henry  C.  Whitney  writes: 

"I  read  in  the  paper  that  he  had  come  to  either 
Bloomington  or  Clinton  to  lecture,  and  no  one  turned 
out.  The  paper  added  'that  doesn't  look  much  like 
his  being  President.'  I  once  joked  him  about  it;  he 
said  good  naturedly,  '  Don't,  that  plagues  me." 

In  October,  1859,  he  received  an  invitation  to  go  to 
New  York  City  to  deliver  a  lecture.  He  accepted  the 
invitation  from  New  York  with  the  suggestion  that  he 
would  deliver  a  speech  on  the  political  questions  of 
the  day  some  time  in  the  following  February.  The 
original  plan  contemplated  a  lecture  in  Mr.  Beecher's 
church  in  Brooklyn.  The  change  of  subject  and  the 
change  in  the  spirit  of  the  times  led  to  a  choice  of 
Cooper  Institute,  where  the  speech  was  finally  given 
under  the  auspices  of  the  Young  Men's  Republican 
Club. 

As  was  Lincoln's  habit  in  the  preparation  of  all  his 
public  addresses,  he  devoted  himself  enthusiastically 
and  painstakingly  to  the  preparation  of  this  speech. 
He  was,  in  a  popular  phrase,  to  invade  the  "enemy's 
country." 

*  Vol.  II,  page  157. 


LINCOLN  AT  COOPER  UNION          251 

The  culture  and  scholarship  of  the  East  had  not  been 
very  kindly  disposed  to  the  awkward  and  unschooled 
"Big  Giant"  of  Illinois. 

Seward,  the  scholar,  the  statesman,  of  broad  culture 
and  distinguished  public  service  as  governor  of  the 
Empire  State,  and  then  representing  that  State  in  the 
United  States  Senate,  was  the  idol  of  the  East. 

To  pave  the  way  for  his  friends  who  were  already 
organizing  for  his  nomination  at  Chicago,  as  the  Re 
publican    candidate    for    President,    Lincoln    spared 
neither  time  nor  effort  in  the  preparation  of  the  Cooper 
Union  address,  which  for  political  logic,  plain,  per 
suasive  phrase,  bottomed  upon  indisputable  historic 
fact,  has  never  been  excelled.     It  was  to  be  for  the  1 
East  what  the  Springfield  speech  of  1858  was  for  the  j 
West. 

Dressed  in  a  new  but  ill-fitting  suit  of  clothes,  Mr. 
Lincoln  arrived  in  New  York.  Probably  there  never 
assembled  in  that  great  city  a  more  representative 
audience,  in  party  prominence,  general  scholarship, 
business  success,  and  the  great  middle  class  from  all 
lines  of  industry  and  commerce,  than  the  audience  that 
packed  the  doors  that  night  to  hear  the  future  Presi 
dent  of  the  United  States. 

William  Cullen  Bryant,  then  editor  of  the  New  York 
Evening  Post,  was  the  presiding  officer.  Among  other 
things,  in  introducing  Mr.  Lincoln,  he  said: 

"It  is  a  grateful  office  I  perform  in  introducing  to 
you  an  eminent  citizen  of  the  West,  hitherto  known  to 
you  only  by  reputation." 

For  a  fair,  full,  and  forcible  statement  of  the  slavery 
question,  as  it  then  presented  itself  to  the  American 
people,  upon  the  eve  of  a  great  national  campaign,  this 
speech  is  worthy  of  reproduction  here. 

Senator  Douglas,  his  old-time  rival,  in  a  speech  at 


252  THE  VOICE  OF  LINCOLN 

Columbus,  Ohio,  delivered  the  previous  fall,  used  this 
language: 

"Our  Fathers  when  they  framed  the  government 
under  which  we  live,  understood  this  question  (the 
question  of  slavery)  just  as  well,  and  even  better,  than 
we  do  now." 

This  furnished  the  common  ground  between  Douglas 
and  Lincoln,  who  were  the  great  political  leaders  of  the 
West,  and  led  to  Lincoln  asking  this  question:  Did  that 
understanding  of  the  fathers  "  forbid  the  Federal  Gov 
ernment  control  as  to  slavery  in  our  Federal  terri 
tories?" 

This  great  speech  contains  the  best  evidence  of  its 
own  greatness  as  well  as  Lincoln's  and  is  given  here  in 
full: 

ADDRESS  AT  COOPER  INSTITUTE,  NEW  YORK, 
FEBRUARY  27,  1860 

"MR.  PRESIDENT  AND  FELLOW-CITIZENS  OF  NEW 
YORK:  The  facts  with  which  I  shall  deal  this  evening 
are  mainly  old  and  familiar;  nor  is  there  anything  new 
in  the  general  use  I  shall  make  of  them.  If  there  shall 
be  any  novelty,  it  will  be  in  the  mode  of  presenting  the 
facts,  and  the  inferences  and  observations  following 
that  presentation.  In  his  speech  last  autumn  at  Co 
lumbus,  Ohio,  as  reported  in  the  New  York  Times, 
Senator  Douglas  said: 

"'Our  fathers,  when  they  framed  the  government 
under  which  we  live,  understood  this  question  just  as 
well,  and  even  better,  than  we  do  now/ 

"I  fully  indorse  this,  and  I  adopt  it  as  a  text  for  this 
discourse.  I  so  adopt  it  because  it  furnishes  a  precise 
and  an  agreed  starting-point  for  a  discussion  between 
Republicans  and  that  wing  of  the  Democracy  headed 


LINCOLN  AT   COOPER  UNION          253 

by  Senator  Douglas.  It  simply  leaves  the  inquiry: 
What  was  the  understanding  those  fathers  had  of  the 
question  mentioned  ? 

"What  is  the  frame  of  government  under  which  we 
live?  The  answer  must  be,  'The  Constitution  of  the 
United  States/  That  Constitution  consists  of  the 
original,  framed  in  1787,  and  under  which  the  present 
government  first  went  into  operation,  and  twelve  sub 
sequently  framed  amendments,  the  first  ten  of  which 
were  framed  in  1789. 

"Who  were  our  fathers  that  framed  the  Constitu 
tion?  I  suppose  the  'thirty-nine'  who  signed  the 
original  instrument  may  be  fairly  called  our  fathers 
who  framed  that  part  of  the  present  government.  It 
is  almost  exactly  true  to  say  they  framed  it,  and  it  is 
altogether  true  to  say  they  fairly  represented  the 
opinion  and  sentiment  of  the  whole  nation  at  that  time. 
Their  names,  being  familiar  to  nearly  all,  and  accessible 
to  quite  all,  need  not  now  be  repeated. 

"I  take  these  'thirty-nine/  for  the  present  as  being 
'our  fathers  who  framed  the  government  under  which 
we  live.'  What  is  the  question  which,  according  to 
the  text,  those  fathers  understood  'just  as  well,  and 
even  better,  than  we  do  now'? 

"It  is  this:  Does  the  proper  division  of  local  from 
Federal  authority,  or  anything  in  the  Constitution, 
forbid  our  Federal  Government  to  control  as  to  slavery 
in  our  Federal  Territories? 

"Upon  this,  Senator  Douglas  holds  the  affirmative, 
and  the  Republicans  the  negative.  This  affirmation 
and  denial  form  an  issue;  and  this  issue — this  question 
— is  precisely  what  the  text  declares  our  fathers  under 
stood  'better  than  we.'  Let  us  now  inquire  whether 
the  'thirty-nine,'  or  any  of  them,  ever  acted  upon  this 


254  THE  VOICE   OF   LINCOLN 

question;  and  if  they  did,  how  they  acted  upon  it — 
how  they  expressed  that  better  understanding.  In 
1784,  three  years  before  the  Constitution,  the  United 
States  then  owning  the  Northwestern  Territory,  and 
no  other,  the  Congress  of  the  Confederation  had  before 
them  the  question  of  prohibiting  slavery  in  that  Ter 
ritory;  and  four  of  the  '  thirty-nine '  who  afterward 
framed  the  Constitution  were  in  that  Congress,  and 
voted  on  that  question.  Of  these  Roger  Sherman, 
Thomas  Mifflin  and  Hugh  Williamson  voted  for  the 
prohibition,  thus  showing  that,  in  their  understanding, 
no  line  dividing  local  from  Federal  authority,  nor  any 
thing  else,  properly  forbade  the  Federal  Government 
control  as  to  slavery  in  Federal  territory.  The  other 
of  the  four,  James  McHenry,  voted  against  the  pro 
hibition,  showing  that  for  some  cause  he  thought  it  im 
proper  to  vote  for  it. 

"In  1787,  still  before  the  Constitution,  but  while  the 
convention  was  in  session  framing  it,  and  while  the 
Northwestern  Territory  still  was  the  only  Territory 
owned  by  the  United  States,  the  same  question  of  pro 
hibiting  slavery  in  the  Territory  again  came  before  the 
Congress  of  the  Confederation;  and  two  more  of  the 
' thirty-nine'  who  afterward  signed  the  Constitution 
were  in  that  Congress,  and  voted  on  the  question. 
They  were  William  Blount  and  William  Few;  and  they 
both  voted  for  the  prohibition — thus  showing  that  in 
their  understanding  no  line  dividing  local  from  Federal 
authority,  nor  anything  else,  properly  forbade  the 
Federal  Government  to  control  as  to  slavery  in  Federal 
territory.  This  time  the  prohibition  became  a  law, 
being  part  of  what  is  now  well  known  as  the  ordinance 
of  '87. 

"The  question  of  Federal  control  of  slavery  in  the 


LINCOLN   AT   COOPER  UNION          255 

Territories  seems  not  to  have  been  directly  before  the 
convention  which  framed  the  original  Constitution; 
and  hence  it  is  not  recorded  that  the  'thirty-nine,'  or 
any  of  them,  while  engaged  on  that  instrument,  ex 
pressed  any  opinion  on  that  precise  question. 

"In  1789,  by  the  first  Congress  which  sat  under 
the  Constitution,  an  act  was  passed  to  enforce  the 
ordinance  of  '87,  including  the  prohibition  of  slavery 
in  the  Northwestern  Territory.  The  bill  for  this  act 
was  reported  by  one  of  the  'thirty-nine' — Thomas 
Fitzsimmons,  then  a  member  of  the  House  of  Repre 
sentatives  from  Pennsylvania.  It  went  through  all 
its  stages  without  a  word  of  opposition,  and  finally 
passed  both  branches  without  ayes  and  nays,  which 
is  equivalent  to  a  unanimous  passage.  In  this  Con 
gress  there  were  sixteen  of  the  thirty-nine  fathers  who 
framed  the  original  Constitution.  They  were  John 
Langdon,  Nicholas  Gilman,  Wm.  S.  Johnson,  Roger 
Sherman,  Robert  Morris,  Thos.  Fitzsimmons,  William 
Few,  Abraham  Baldwin,  Rufus  King,  William  Pater- 
son,  George  Clymer,  Richard  Bassett,  George  Read, 
Pierce  Butler,  Daniel  Carroll  and  James  Madison. 

"This  shows  that,  in  their  understanding,  no  line 
dividing  local  from  Federal  authority,  nor  anything 
in  the  Constitution,  properly  forbade  Congress  to 
prohibit  slavery  in  the  Federal  territory;  else  both 
their  fidelity  to  correct  principle,  and  their  oath  to 
support  the  Constitution,  would  have  constrained 
them  to  oppose  the  prohibition. 

"Again,  George  Washington,  another  of  the  ' thirty- 
nine/  was  then  President  of  the  United  States  and  as 
such  approved  and  signed  the  bill,  thus  completing 
its  validity  as  a  law,  and  thus  showing  that,  in  his 
understanding,  no  line  dividing  local  from  Federal 


256  THE  VOICE   OF  LINCOLN 

authority,  nor  anything  in  the  Constitution,  forbade 
the  Federal  Government  to  control  as  to  slavery  in 
Federal  territory. 

"No  great  while  after  the  adoption  of  the  original 
Constitution,  North  Carolina  ceded  to  the  Federal 
Government  the  country  now  constituting  the  State 
of  Tennessee;  and  a  few  years  later  Georgia  ceded 
that  which  now  constitutes  the  States  of  Mississippi 
and  Alabama.  In  both  deeds  of  cession  it  was  made  a 
condition  by  the  ceding  States  that  the  Federal  Govern 
ment  should  not  prohibit  slavery  in  the  ceded  coun 
try.  Besides  this,  slavery  was  then  actually  in  the 
ceded  country.  Under  these  circumstances,  Congress, 
on  taking  charge  of  these  countries  did  not  absolutely 
prohibit  slavery  within  them.  But  they  did  interfere 
with  it — take  control  of  it — even  there,  to  a  certain 
extent.  In  1798  Congress  organized  the  Territory  of 
Mississippi.  In  the  act  of  organization  they  prohibited 
the  bringing  of  slaves  into  the  Territory  from  any  place 
without  the  United  States,  by  fine,  and  giving  freedom 
to  slaves  so  brought.  This  act  passed  both  branches 
of  Congress  without  yeas  and  nays.  In  that  Congress 
were  three  of  the  '  thirty-nine '  who  framed  the  original 
Constitution.  They  were  John  Langdon,  George 
Read,  and  Abraham  Baldwin.  They  all  probably 
voted  for  it.  Certainly  they  would  have  placed  their 
opposition  to  it  upon  record  if,  in  their  understanding, 
any  line  dividing  local  from  Federal  authority,  or  any 
thing  in  the  Constitution,  properly  forbade  the  Federal 
Government  to  control  as  to  slavery  in  Federal  terri 
tory. 

"In  1803  the  Federal  Government  purchased  the 
Louisiana  country.  Our  former  territorial  acquisitions 
came  from  certain  of  our  own  States ;  but  this  Louisiana 


LINCOLN  AT   COOPER  UNION          257 

country  was  acquired  from  a  foreign  nation.  In  1804 
Congress  gave  a  territorial  organization  to  that  part  of 
it  which  now  constitutes  the  State  of  Louisiana.  New 
Orleans,  lying  within  that  part,  was  an  old  and  com 
paratively  large  city.  There  were  other  considerable 
towns  and  settlements,  and  slavery  was  extensively  and 
thoroughly  intermingled  with  the  people.  Congress 
did  not,  in  the  Territorial  Act,  prohibit  slavery;  but 
they  did  interfere  with  it — take  control  of  it — in  a 
more  marked  and  extensive  way  than  they  did  in  the 
case  of  Mississippi.  The  substance  of  the  provision 
therein  made  in  relation  to  slaves  was: 

"1st.  That  no  slave  should  be  imported  into  the 
Territory  from  foreign  parts. 

"2d.  That  no  slave  should  be  carried  into  it,  who 
had  been  imported  into  the  United  States  since  the 
first  day  of  May,  1798. 

"3d.  That  no  slave  should  be  carried  into  it,  except 
by  the  owner,  and  for  his  own  use  as  a  settler;  the 
penalty  in  all  the  cases  being  a  fine  upon  the  violator 
of  the  law,  and  freedom  to  the  slave. 

"This  act  also  was  passed  without  ayes  or  nays. 
In  the  Congress  which  passed  it  there  were  two  of  the 
1  thirty-nine.'  They  were  Abraham  Baldwin  and 
Jonathan  Dayton.  As  stated  in  the  case  of  Mississippi, 
it  is  probable  they  both  voted  for  it.  They  would  not 
have  allowed  it  to  pass  without  recording  their  opposi 
tion  to  it  if,  in  their  understanding,  it  violated  either 
the  line  properly  dividing  local  from  Federal  authority, 
or  any  provision  of  the  Constitution. 

"In  1819-20  came  and  passed  the  Missouri  ques 
tion.  Many  votes  were  taken,  by  yeas  and  nays,  in 
both  branches  of  Congress,  upon  the  various  phases 
of  the  general  question.  Two  of  the  '  thirty-nine'- 


258  THE  VOICE   OF  LINCOLN 

Rufus  King  and  Charles  Pinckney — were  members 
of  that  Congress.  Mr.  King  steadily  voted  for  slavery 
prohibition  and  against  all  compromises,  while  Mr. 
Pinckney  as  steadily  voted  against  slavery  prohibi 
tion  and  against  all  compromises.  By  this  Mr.  King 
showed  that,  in  his  understanding,  no  line  dividing 
local  from  Federal  authority,  nor  anything  in  the  Con 
stitution,  was  violated  by  Congress  prohibiting  slavery 
in  Federal  territory;  while  Mr.  Pinckney,  by  his  votes, 
showed  that,  in  his  understanding,  there  was  some 
sufficient  reason  for  opposing  such  prohibition  in  that 
case. 

"The  cases  I  have  mentioned  are  the  only  acts  of 
the  '  thirty-nine,'  or  of  any  of  them,  upon  the  direct 
issue,  which  I  have  been  able  to  discover. 

"To  enumerate  the  persons  who  thus  acted  as  being 
four  in  1784,  two  in  1787,  seventeen  in  1789,  three  in 
1798,  two  in  1804,  and  two  in  1819-20,  there  would 
be  thirty  of  them.  But  this  would  be  counting  John 
Langdon,  Roger  Sherman,  William  Few,  Rufus  King, 
and  George  Read  each  twice,  and  Abraham  Baldwin 
three  times.  The  true  number  of  those  of  the  '  thirty- 
nine  '  whom  I  have  shown  to  have  acted  upon  the  ques 
tion  which,  by  the  text,  they  understood  better  than 
we,  is  twenty-three,  leaving  sixteen  now  shown  to 
have  acted  upon  it  in  any  way. 

"Here,  then,  we  have  twenty- three  out  of  our  thirty- 
nine  fathers  'who  framed  the  government  under  which 
we  live/  who  have,  upon  their  official  responsibility 
and  their  corporal  oaths,  acted  upon  the  very  question 
which  the  text  affirms  they  ' understood  just  as  well, 
and  even  better,  than  we  do  now';  and  twenty-one 
of  them — a  clear  majority  of  the  whole  ' thirty-nine'— 
so  acting  upon  it  as  to  make  them  guilty  of  gross  polit- 


LINCOLN  AT  COOPER  UNION          259 

ical  impropriety  and  wilful  perjury  if,  in  their  under 
standing,  any  proper  division  between  local  and  Federal 
authority,  or  anything  in  the  Constitution  they  had 
made  themselves,  and  sworn  to  support,  forbade  the 
Federal  Government  to  control  as  to  slavery  in  the 
Federal  Territories.  Thus  the  twenty-one  acted;  and, 
as  actions  speak  louder  than  words,  so  actions  under 
such  responsibility  speak  still  louder. 

"Two  of  the  twenty-three  voted  against  congres 
sional  prohibition  of  slavery  in  the  Federal  Territories, 
in  the  instances  in  which  they  acted  upon  the  question. 
But  for  what  reasons  they  so  voted  is  not  known.  They 
may  have  done  so  because  they  thought  a  proper  divi 
sion  of  local  from  Federal  authority,  or  some  provision 
or  principle  of  the  Constitution,  stood  in  the  way;  or 
they  may,  without  any  such  question,  have  voted 
against  the  prohibition  on  what  appeared  to  them  to 
be  sufficient  grounds  of  expediency.  No  one  who  has 
sworn  to  support  the  Constitution  can  conscientiously 
vote  for  what  he  understands  to  be  an  unconstitutional 
measure,  however  expedient  he  may  think  it;  but 
one  may  and  ought  to  vote  against  a  measure  which 
he  deems  constitutional  if,  at  the  same  time,  he  deems 
it  inexpedient.  It,  therefore,  would  be  unsafe  to  set 
down  even  the  two  who  voted  against  the  prohibition 
as  having  done  so  because,  in  their  understanding,  any 
proper  division  of  local  from  Federal  authority,  or 
anything  in  the  Constitution,  forbade  the  Federal  Gov 
ernment  to  control  as  to  slavery  in  Federal  territory. 

"The  remaining  sixteen  of  the  ' thirty-nine/  so  far 
as  I  have  discovered,  have  left  no  record  of  their  un 
derstanding  upon  the  direct  question  of  Federal  control 
of  slavery  in  the  Federal  Territories.  But  there  is 
much  reason  to  believe  that  their  understanding  upon 


260  THE  VOICE   OF  LINCOLN 

that  question  would  not  have  appeared  different  from 
that -of  their  twenty-three  compeers,  had  it  been  mani 
fest  at  all. 

"For  the  purpose  of  adhering  rigidly  to  the  text,  I 
have  purposely  omitted  whatever  understanding  may 
have  been  manifested  by  any  person,  however  dis 
tinguished,  other  than  the  thirty-nine  fathers  who 
framed  the  original  Constitution;  and,  for  the  same 
reason,  I  have  also  omitted  whatever  understanding 
may  have  been  manifested  by  any  of  the  '  thirty-nine ' 
even  on  any  other  phase  of  the  general  question  of 
slavery.  If  we  should  look  into  their  acts  and  declara 
tions  on  those  other  phases,  as  the  foreign  slave-trade, 
and  the  morality  and  policy  of  slavery  generally,  it 
would  appear  to  us  that  on  the  direct  question  of 
Federal  control  of  slavery  in  Federal  Territories,  the 
sixteen,  if  they  had  acted  at  all,  would  probably  have 
acted  just  as  the  twenty- three  did.  Among  that  six 
teen  were  several  of  the  most  noted  antislavery  men 
of  those  times, — as  Dr.  Franklin,  Alexander  Hamilton, 
and  Gouverneur  Morris, — while  there  was  not  one 
now  known  to  have  been  otherwise,  unless  it  may  be 
John  Rutledge,  of  South  Carolina. 

"The  sum  of  the  whole  is  that  out  of  thirty-nine  fa 
thers  who  framed  the  original  Constitution,  twenty-one 
—a  clear  majority  of  the  whole — certainly  understood 
that  no  proper  division  of  local  from  Federal  authority, 
nor  any  part  of  the  Constitution,  forbade  the  Federal 
Government  to  control  slavery  in  the  Federal  Territo 
ries;  while  all  the  rest  had  probably  the  same  under 
standing.  Such  unquestionably  was  the  understanding 
of  our  fathers  who  framed  the  original  Constitution; 
and  the  text  affirms  that  they  understood  the  question 
1  better  than  we/  * 


LINCOLN  AT   COOPER  UNION          261 

"But,  so  far,  I  have  been  considering  the  under 
standing  of  the  question  manifested  by  the  framers  of 
the  original  Constitution.  In  and  by  the  original  in 
strument,  a  mode  was  provided  for  amending  it;  and, 
as  I  have  already  stated,  the  present  frame  of  '  the  gov 
ernment  under  which  we  live '  consists  of  that  original, 
and  twelve  amendatory  articles  framed  and  adopted 
since.  Those  who  now  insist  that  Federal  control  of 
slavery  in  Federal  Territories  violates  the  Constitution, 
point  us  to  the  provisions  which  they  suppose  it  thus 
violates;  and,  as  I  understand,  they  all  fix  upon  pro 
visions  in  these  amendatory  articles,  and  not  in  the 
original  instrument.  The  Supreme  Court,  in  the  Dred 
Scott  case,  plant  themselves  upon  the  Fifth  Amend 
ment,  which  provides  that  no  person  shall  be  deprived 
of  'life,  liberty,  or  property  without  due  process  of 
law ' ;  while  Senator  Douglas  and  his  peculiar  adherents 
plant  themselves  upon  the  Tenth  Amendment,  provid 
ing  that '  the  powers  not  delegated  to  the  United  States 
by  the  Constitution '  'are  reserved  to  the  States  re 
spectively,  or  to  the  people.' 

"Now,  it  so  happens  that  these  amendments  were 
framed  by  the  first  Congress  which  sat  under  the  Con 
stitution — the  identical  Congress  which  passed  the 
act,  already  mentioned,  enforcing  the  prohibition  of 
slavery  in  the  Northwestern  Territory.  Not  only  was 
it  the  same  Congress,  but  they  were  the  identical,  same 
individual  men  who,  at  the  same  session,  and  at  the 
same  time  within  the  session,  had  under  consideration, 
and  in  progress  toward  maturity,  these  constitutional 
amendments,  and  this  act  prohibiting  slavery  in  all  the 
territory  the  nation  then  owned.  The  constitutional 
amendments  were  introduced  before,  and  passed  after, 
the  act  enforcing  the  ordinance  of  '87;  so  that,  during 


262  THE  VOICE   OF  LINCOLN 

the  whole  pendency  of  the  act  to  enforce  the  ordinance, 
the  constitutional  amendments  were  also  pending. 

"The  seventy-six  members  of  that  Congress,  includ 
ing  sixteen  of  the  framers  of  the  original  Constitution, 
as  before  stated,  were  preeminently  our  fathers  who 
framed  that  part  of  'the  government  under  which  we 
live'  which  is  now  claimed  as  forbidding  the  Federal 
Government  to  control  slavery  in  the  Federal  Terri 
tories. 

"Is  it  not  a  little  presumptuous  in  any  one  at  this 
day  to  affirm  that  the  two  things  which  that  Congress 
deliberately  framed,  and  carried  to  maturity  at  the 
same  time,  are  absolutely  inconsistent  with  each  other? 
And  does  not  such  affirmation  become  impudently  ab 
surd  when  coupled  with  the  other  affirmation,  from  the 
same  mouth,  that  those  who  did  the  two  things  alleged 
to  be  inconsistent,  understood  whether  they  really  were 
inconsistent  better  than  we — better  than  he  who  affirms 
that  they  are  inconsistent? 

"It  is  surely  safe  to  assume  that  the  thirty-nine 
framers  of  the  original  Constitution,  and  the  seventy- 
six  members  of  the  Congress  which  framed  the  amend 
ments  thereto,  taken  together,  do  certainly  include 
those  who  may  be  fairly  called  l  our  fathers  who  framed 
the  government  under  which  we  live/  And  so  assum 
ing,  I  defy  any  man  to  show  that  any  one  of  them  ever, 
in  his  whole  life,  declared  that,  in  his  understanding, 
any  proper  division  of  local  from  Federal  authority, 
or  any  part  of  the  Constitution,  forbade  the  Federal 
Government  to  control  as  to  slavery  in  the  Federal 
Territories.  I  go  a  step  further.  I  defy  any  one  to 
show  that  any  living  man  in  the  whole  world  ever  did, 
prior  to  the  beginning  of  the  present  century  (and  I 
might  almost  say  prior  to  the  beginning  of  the  last  half 


LINCOLN  AT  COOPER  UNION          263 

of  the  present  century),  declare  that,  in  his  understand 
ing,  any  proper  division  of  local  from  Federal  authority, 
or  any  part  of  the  Constitution,  forbade  the  Federal 
Government  to  control  as  to  slavery  in  the  Federal 
Territories.  To  those  who  now  so  declare  I  give  not 
only  'our  fathers  who  framed  the  government  under 
which  we  live/  but  with  them  all  other  living  men 
within  the  century  in  which  it  was  framed,  among 
whom  to  search,  and  they  shall  not  be  able  to  find  the 
evidence  of  a  single  man  agreeing  with  them. 

"Now,  and  here,  let  me  guard  a  little  against  being 
misunderstood.  I  do  not  mean  to  say  we  are  bound 
to  follow  implicitly  in  whatever  our  fathers  did.  To 
do  so  would  be  to  discard  all  the  lights  of  current  ex 
perience — to  reject  all  progress,  all  improvement. 
What  I  do  say  is  that  if  we  would  supplant  the  opinions 
and  policy  of  our  fathers  in  any  case,  we  should  do  so 
upon  evidence  so  conclusive,  and  argument  so  clear, 
that  even  their  great  authority,  fairly  considered  and 
weighed,  cannot  stand;  and  most  surely  not  in  a  case 
whereof  we  ourselves  declare  they  understood  the 
question  better  than  we. 

"If  any  man  at  this  day x sincerely  believes  that  a 
proper  division  of  local  from  Federal  authority,  or  any 
part  of  the  Constitution,  forbids  the  Federal  Govern 
ment  to  control  as  to  slavery  in  the  Federal  Territories, 
he  is  right  to  say  so,  and  to  enforce  his  position  by  all 
truthful  evidence  and  fair  argument  which  he  can. 
But  he  has  no  right  to  mislead  others,  who  have  less 
access  to  history,  and  less  leisure  to  study  it,  into  the 
false  belief  that  'our  fathers  who  framed  the  govern 
ment  under  which  we  live'  were  of  the  same  opinion — 
thus  substituting  falsehood  and  deception  for  truthful 
evidence  and  fair  argument.  If  any  man  at  this  day 


264  THE  VOICE   OF  LINCOLN 

sincerely  believes  'our  fathers  who  framed  the  govern 
ment  under  which  we  live7  used  and  applied  principles, 
in  other  cases,  which  ought  to  have  led  them  to  under 
stand  that  a  proper  division  of  local  from  Federal 
authority,  or  some  part  of  the  Constitution,  forbids  the 
Federal  Government  to  control  as  to  slavery  in  the 
Federal  Territories,  he  is  right  to  say  so.  But  he 
should,  at  the  same  time,  brave  the  responsibility  of 
declaring  that,  in  his  opinion,  he  understands  their 
principles  better  than  they  did  themselves;  and  espe 
cially  should  he  not  shirk  that  responsibility  by  assert 
ing  that  they  ' understood  the  question  just  as  well, 
and  even  better,  than  we  do  now/ 

"But  enough !  Let  all  who  believe  that  'our  fathers 
who  framed  the  government  under  which  we  live  under 
stood  this  question  just  as  well,  and  even  better  than 
we  do  now/  speak  as  they  spoke,  and  act  as  they  acted 
upon  it.  This  is  all  Republicans  ask — all  Republicans 
desire — in  relation  to  slavery.  As  those  fathers  marked 
it,  so  let  it  be  again  marked,  as  an  evil  not  to  be  ex 
tended,  but  to  be  tolerated  and  protected  only  because 
of  and  so  far  as  its  actual  presence  among  us  makes 
that  toleration  and  protection  a  necessity.  Let  all  the 
guaranties  those  fathers  gave  it  be  not  grudgingly,  but 
fully  and  fairly,  maintained.  For  this  Republicans 
contend,  and  with  this,  so  far  as  I  know  or  believe,  they 
will  be  content. 

"And  now,  if  they  would  listen, — as  I  suppose  they 
will  not, — I  would  address  a  few  words  to  the  Southern 
people. 

"I  would  say  to  them:  You  consider  yourselves  a 
reasonable  and  a  just  people;  and  I  consider  that  in  the 
general  qualities  of  reason  and  justice  you  are  not  in 
ferior  to  any  other  people.  Still  when  you  speak  of  us 


LINCOLN  AT  COOPER  UNION          265 

Republicans,  you  do  so  only  to  denounce  us  as  reptiles, 
or,  at  the  best,  as  no  better  than  outlaws.  You  will 
grant  a  hearing  to  pirates  or  murderers,  but  nothing 
like  it  to  ' Black  Republicans.7  In  all  your  contentions 
with  one  another,  each  of  you  deems  an  unconditional 
condemnation  of  'Black  Republicanism'  as  the  first 
thing  to  be  attended  to.  Indeed,  such  condemnation 
of  us  seems  to  be  an  indispensable  prerequisite — license, 
so  to  speak — among  you  to  be  admitted  or  permitted 
to  speak  at  all.  Now  can  you  or  not  be  prevailed  upon 
to  pause  and  to  consider  whether  this  is  quite  just  to 
us,  or  even  to  yourselves  ?  Bring  forward  your  charges 
and  specifications,  and  then  be  patient  long  enough 
to  hear  us  deny  or  justify. 

"You  say  we  are  sectional.  We  deny  it.  That 
makes  an  issue;  and  the  burden  of  proof  is  upon  you. 
You  produce  your  proof;  and  what  is  it?  Why,  that 
our  party  has  no  existence  in  your  section — gets  no 
votes  in  your  section.  The  fact  is  substantially  true; 
but  does  it  prove  the  issue?  If  it  does,  then  in  case 
we  should,  without  change  of  principle,  begin  to  get 
votes  in  your  section,  we  should  thereby  cease  to  be 
sectional.  You  cannot  escape  this  conclusion;  and  yet, 
are  you  willing  to  abide  by  it?  If  you  are,  you  will 
probably  soon  find  that  we  have  ceased  to  be  sectional, 
for  we  shall  get  votes  in  your  section  this  very  year. 
You  will  then  begin  to  discover,  as  the  truth  plainly  is, 
that  your  proof  does  not  touch  the  issue.  The  fact 
that  we  get  no  votes  in  your  section  is  a  fact  of  your 
making,  and  not  of  ours.  And  if  there  be  fault  in  that 
fact,  that  fault  is  primarily  yours,  and  remains  so  until 
you  show  that  we  repel  you  by  some  wrong  principle 
or  practice.  If  we  do  repel  you  by  any  wrong  principle 
or  practice,  the  fault  is  ours;  but  this  brings  you  to 


266  THE  VOICE  OF  LINCOLN 

where  you  ought  to  have  started — to  a  discussion  of 
the  right  or  wrong  of  our  principle.  If  our  principle, 
put  in  practice,  would  wrong  your  section  for  the 
benefit  of  ours,  or  for  any  other  object,  then  our  prin 
ciple,  and  we  with  it,  are  sectional,  and  are  justly  op 
posed  and  denounced  as  such.  Meet  us,  then,  on  the 
question  of  whether  our  principle,  put  in  practice, 
would  wrong  your  section;  and  so  meet  us  as  if  it  were 
possible  that  something  may  be  said  on  our  side.  Do 
you  accept  the  challenge  ?  No !  Then  you  really  be 
lieve  that  the  principle  which  'our  fathers  who  framed 
the  government  under  which  we  live '  thought  so  clearly 
right  as  to  adopt  it,  and  indorse  it  again  and  again, 
upon  their  official  oaths,  is  in  fact  so  clearly  wrong  as 
to  demand  your  condemnation  without  a  moment's 
consideration. 

"Some  of  you  delight  to  flaunt  in  our  faces  the 
warning  against  sectional  parties  given  by  Washington 
in  his  Farewell  Address.  Less  than  eight  years  before 
Washington  gave  that  warning,  he  had,  as  President 
of  the  United  States,  approved  and  signed  an  act  of 
Congress  enforcing  the  prohibition  of  slavery  in  the 
Northwestern  Territory,  which  act  embodied  the  policy 
of  the  government  upon  that  subject  up  to  and  at  the 
very  moment  he  penned  that  warning;  and  about  one 
year  after  he  penned  it,  he  wrote  Lafayette  that  he 
considered  that  prohibition  a  wise  measure,  expressing 
in  the  same  connection  his  hope  that  we  should  at 
some  tune  have  a  confederacy  of  free  States. 

"Bearing  this  in  mind,  and  seeing  that  sectionalism 
has  since  arisen  upon  this  same  subject,  is  that  warning 
a  weapon  in  your  hands  against  us,  or  in  our  hands 
against  you  ?  Could  Washington  himself  speak,  would 
he  cast  the  blame  of  that  sectionalism  upon  us,  who 


LINCOLN  AT  COOPER  UNION          267 

sustain  his  policy,  or  upon  you  who  repudiate  it?  We 
respect  that  warning  of  Washington,  and  we  commend 
it  to  you,  together  with  his  example  pointing  to  the 
right  application  of  it. 

"But  you  say  you  are  conservative — eminently  con 
servative — while  we  are  revolutionary,  destructive,  or 
something  of  the  sort.  What  is  conservatism?  Is  it 
not  adherence  to  the  old  and  tried,  against  the  new 
and  untried?  We  stick  to,  contend  for,  the  identical 
old  policy  on  the  point  in  controversy  which  was 
adopted  by  'our  fathers  who  framed  the  government 
under  which  we  live';  while  you  with  one  accord  re 
ject,  and  scout,  and  spit  upon  that  old  policy,  and  in 
sist  upon  substituting  something  new.  True,  you 
disagree  among  yourselves  as  to  what  that  substitute 
shall  be.  You  are  divided  on  new  propositions  and 
plans,  but  you  are  unanimous  in  rejecting  and  de 
nouncing  the  old  policy  of  the  fathers.  Some  of  you 
are  for  reviving  the  foreign  slave-trade;  some  for  a 
congressional  slave  code  for  the  Territories;  some  for 
Congress  forbidding  the  Territories  to  prohibit  slavery 
in  the  Territories  through  the  judiciary;  some  for  the 
1  gur-reaLpur-rinciple '  that  'if  one  man  would  enslave 
another,  no  third  man  should  object/  fantastically 
called  'popular  sovereignty';  but  never  a  man  among 
you  is  in  favor  of  Federal  prohibition  of  slavery  in 
Federal  Territories,  according  to  the  practice  of  'our 
fathers  who  framed  the  government  under  which  we 
live.'  Not  one  of  all  your  various  plans  can  show  a 
precedent  or  an  advocate  in  the  century  within  which 
our  government  originated.  Consider,  then,  whether 
your  claim  of  conservatism  for  yourselves,  and  your 
charge  of  destructiveness  against  us,  are  based  on  the 
most  clear  and  stable  foundations. 


268  THE  VOICE   OF  LINCOLN 

"  Again,  you  say  we  have  made  the  slavery  question 
more  prominent  than  it  formerly  was.  We  deny  it. 
We  admit  that  it  is  more  prominent,  but  we  deny  that 
we  made  it  so.  It  was  not  we,  but  you,  who  discarded 
the  old  policy  of  the  fathers.  We  resisted,  and  still 
resist,  your  innovation;  and  thence  comes  the  greater 
prominence  of  the  question.  Would  you  have  that 
question  reduced  to  its  former  proportions?  Go  back 
to  that  old  policy.  What  has  been  will  be  again,  under 
the  same  conditions.  If  you  would  have  the  peace  of 
the  old  times,  readopt  the  precepts  and  policy  of  the 
old  times. 

"You  charge  that  we  stir  up  insurrections  among 
your  slaves.  We  deny  it;  and  what  is  your  proof? 
' Harper's  Ferry!  John  Brown!'  John  Brown  was 
no  Republican;  and  you  have  failed  to  implicate  a 
single  Republican  in  his  Harper's  Ferry  enterprise. 
If  any  member  of  our  party  is  guilty  in  that  matter, 
you  know  it,  or  you  do  not  know  it.  If  you  do  know 
it,  you  are  inexcusable  for  not  designating  the  man 
and  proving  the  fact.  If  you  do  not  know  it,  you  are 
inexcusable  for  asserting  it,  and  especially  for  persist 
ing  in  the  assertion  after  you  have  tried  and  failed  to 
make  the  proof.  You  need  not  be  told  that  persisting 
in  a  charge  which  one  does  not  know  to  be  true,  is 
simply  malicious  slander. 

"Some  of  you  admit  that  no  Republican  designedly 
aided  or  encouraged  the  Harper's  Ferry  affair,  but  still 
insist  that  our  doctrines  and  declarations  necessarily 
lead  to  such  results.  We  do  not  believe  it.  We  know 
we  hold  no  doctrine,  and  make  no  declaration,  which 
were  not  held  to  and  made  by  '  our  fathers  who  framed 
the  government  under  which  we  live.'  You  never 
dealt  fairly  by  us  in  relation  to  this  affair.  When  it 


LINCOLN  AT  COOPER  UNION          269 

occurred,  some  important  State  elections  were  near 
at  hand,  and  you  were  in  evident  glee  with  the  belief 
that,  by  charging  the  blame  upon  us,  you  could  get 
an  advantage  of  us  in  those  elections.  The  elections 
came,  and  your  expectations  were  not  quite  fulfilled. 
Every  Republican  man  knew  that,  as  to  himself  at 
least,  your  charge  was  a  slander,  and  he  was  not  much 
inclined  by  it  to  cast  his  vote  in  your  favor.  Republican 
doctrines  and  declarations  are  accompanied  with  a 
continual  protest  against  any  interference  whatever 
with  your  slaves,  or  with  you  about  your  slaves.  Surely 
this  does  not  encourage  them  to  revolt.  True,  we  do, 
in  common  with  'our  fathers  who  framed  the  govern 
ment  under  which  we  live,'  declare  our  belief  that 
slavery  is  wrong;  but  the  slaves  do  not  hear  us  declare 
even  this.  For  anything  we  say  or  do,  the  slaves  would 
scarcely  know  there  is  a  Republican  party.  I  believe 
they  would  not,  in  fact,  generally  know  it  but  for 
your  misrepresentations  of  us  in  their  hearing.  In 
your  political  contests  among  yourselves,  each  faction 
charges  the  other  with  sympathy  with  Black  Repub 
licanism;  and  then,  to  give  point  to  the  charge,  de 
fines  Black  Republicanism  to  simply  be  insurrection, 
blood,  and  thunder  among  the  slaves. 

"  Slave  insurrections  are  no  more  common  now  than 
they  were  before  the  Republican  party  was  organized. 
What  induced  the  Southampton  insurrection,  twenty- 
eight  years  ago,  in  which  at  least  three  times  as  many 
lives  were  lost  as  at  Harper's  Ferry?  You  can  scarcely 
stretch  your  very  elastic  fancy  to  the  conclusion  that 
Southampton  was  'got  up  by  Black  Republicanism/ 
In  the  present  state  of  things  in  the  United  States,  I 
do  not  think  a  general,  or  even  a  very  extensive,  slave 
insurrection  is  possible.  The  indispensable  concert  of 


270  THE  VOICE   OF  LINCOLN 

action  cannot  be  attained.  The  slaves  have  no  means 
of  rapid  communication;  nor  can  incendiary  freemen, 
black  or  white,  supply  it.  The  explosive  materials 
are  everywhere  in  parcels;  but  there  neither  are,  nor 
can  be  supplied,  the  indispensable  connecting  trains. 

"Much  is  said  by  Southern  people  about  the  affec 
tion  of  slaves  for  their  masters  and  mistresses;  and  a 
part  of  it,  at  least,  is  true.  A  plot  for  an  uprising  could 
scarcely  be  devised  and  communicated  to  twenty  in 
dividuals  before  some  one  of  them,  to  save  the  life 
of  a  favorite  master  or  mistress,  would  divulge  it.  This 
is  the  rule,  and  the  slave  revolution  in  Hayti  was  not 
an  exception  to  it,  but  a  case  occurring  under  peculiar 
circumstances.  The  gunpowder  plot  of  British  history, 
though  not  connected  with  slaves,  was  more  in  point. 
In  that  case,  only  about  twenty  were  admitted  to  the 
secret;  and  yet  one  of  them,  in  his  anxiety  to  save  a 
friend,  betrayed  the  plot  to  that  friend,  and,  by  con 
sequence,  averted  the  calamity.  Occasional  poisonings 
from  the  kitchen,  and  open  or  stealthy  assassinations 
in  the  field,  and  local  revolts  extending  to  a  score  or 
so,  will  continue  to  occur  as  the  natural  results  of 
slavery;  but  no  general  insurrection  of  slaves,  as  I 
think,  can  happen  in  this  country  for  a  long  time.  Who 
ever  much  fears,  or  much  hopes,  for  such  an  event, 
will  be  alike  disappointed. 

"In  the  language  of  Mr.  Jefferson,  uttered  many 
years  ago,  '  It  is  still  in  our  power  to  direct  the  process 
of  emancipation  and  deportation  peaceably,  and  in 
such  slow  degrees,  as  that  the  evil  will  wear  off  insen 
sibly;  and  their  places  be,  pari  passu,  filled  up  by  free 
white  laborers.  If,  on  the  contrary,  it  is  left  to  force 
itself  on,  human  nature  must  shudder  at  the  prospect 
held  up.' 


LINCOLN  AT  COOPER  UNION          271 

"Mr.  Jefferson  did  not  mean  to  say,  nor  do  I,  that 
the  power  of  emancipation  is  in  the  Federal  Govern 
ment.  He  spoke  of  Virginia;  and,  as  to  the  power  of 
emancipation,  I  speak  of  the  slave-holding  States  only. 
The  Federal  Government,  however,  as  we  insist,  has 
the  power  of  restraining  the  extension  of  the  institu 
tion — the  power  to  insure  that  a  slave  insurrection 
shall  never  occur  on  any  American  soil  which  is  now 
free  from  slavery. 

"John  Brown's  effort  was  peculiar.  It  was  not  a 
slave  insurrection.  It  was  an  attempt  by  white  men 
to  get  up  a  revolt  among  slaves,  in  which  the  slaves 
refused  to  participate.  In  fact,  it  was  so  absurd  that 
the  slaves,  with  all  their  ignorance,  saw  plainly  enough 
it  could  not  succeed.  That  affair,  in  its  philosophy, 
corresponds  with  the  many  attempts,  related  in 
history,  at  the  assassination  of  kings  and  emperors. 
An  enthusiast  broods  over  the  oppression  of  a  people 
till  he  fancies  himself  commissioned  by  Heaven  to 
liberate  them.  He  ventures  the  attempt,  which  ends 
in  little  else  than  his  own  execution.  Orsini's  attempt 
on  Louis  Napoleon,  and  John  Brown's  attempt  at 
Harper's  Ferry,  were,  in  their  philosophy,  precisely 
the  same.  The  eagerness  to  cast  blame  on  old  Eng 
land  in  the  one  case,  and  on  New  England  in  the  other, 
does  not  disprove  the  sameness  of  the  two  things. 

"And  how  much  would  it  avail  you,  if  you  could, 
by  the  use  of  John  Brown,  Helper's  Book,  and  the  like 
break  up  the  Republican  organization?  Human  action 
can  be  modified  to  some  extent,  but  human  nature 
cannot  be  changed.  There  is  a  judgment  and  a  feeling 
against  slavery  in  this  nation,  which  cast  at  least  a 
million  and  a  half  of  votes.  You  cannot  destroy  that 
judgment  and  feeling — that  sentiment — by  breaking 


272  THE  VOICE  OF  LINCOLN 

up  the  political  organization  which  rallies  around  it. 
You  can  scarcely  scatter  and  disperse  an  army  which 
has  been  formed  into  order  in  the  face  of  your  heaviest 
fire;  but  if  you  could,  how  much  would  you  gain  by 
forcing  the  sentiment  which  created  it  out  of  the  peace 
ful  channel  of  the  ballot-box  into  some  other  channel? 
What  would  that  other  channel  probably  be?  Would 
the  number  of  John  Browns  be  lessened  or  enlarged  by 
the  operation? 

"But  you  will  break  up  the  Union  rather  than  sub 
mit  to  a  denial  of  your  constitutional  rights. 

"That  has  a  somewhat  reckless  sound;  but  it  would 
be  palliated,  if  not  fully  justified,  were  we  proposing, 
by  the  mere  force  of  numbers,  to  deprive  you  of  some 
right  plainly  written  down  in  the  Constitution.  But 
we  are  proposing  no  such  thing. 

"When  you  make  these  declarations  you  have  a 
specific  and  well-understood  allusion  to  an  assumed 
constitutional  right  of  yours  to  take  slaves  into  the 
Federal  Territories,  and  to  hold  them  there  as  property. 
But  no  such  right  is  specifically  written  in  the  Consti 
tution.  That  instrument  is  literally  silent  about  any 
such  right.  We,  on  the  contrary,  deny  that  such  a 
right  has  any  existence  in  the  Constitution,  even  by 
implication. 

"Your  purpose,  then,  plainly  stated,  is  that  you  will 
destroy  the  government,  unless  you  be  allowed  to 
construe  and  force  the  Constitution  as  you  please,  on 
all  points  in  dispute  between  you  and  us.  You  will 
rule  or  ruin  in  all  events. 

"This,  plainly  stated,  is  your  language.  Perhaps 
you  will  say  the  Supreme  Court  has  decided  the  dis 
puted  constitutional  question  in  your  favor.  Not  quite 
so.  But  waiving  the  lawyer's  distinction  between  die- 


LINCOLN  AT  COOPER  UNION          273 

turn  and  decision,  the  court  has  decided  the  question 
for  you  in  a  sort  of  way.  The  court  has  substantially 
said,  it  is^xDurlTonstitutional  right  to  take  slaves  into 
the  Federal  Territories,  and  to  hold  them  there  as 
property.  When  I  say  the  decision  was  made  in  a 
sort  of  way,  I  mean  it  was  made  in  a  divided  court,  by 
a  bare  majority  of  the  judges,  and  they  not  quite  agree 
ing  with  one  another  in  the  reasons  for  making  it;  that 
it  is  so  made  as  that  its  avowed  supporters  disagree 
with  one  another  about  its  meaning,  and  that  it  was 
mainly  based  upon  a  mistaken  statement  of  fact — the 
statement  in  the  opinion  that  '  the  right  of  property  in 
a  slave  is  distinctly  and  expressly  affirmed  in  the  Con 
stitution.' 

"An  inspection  of  the  Constitution  will  show  that 
the  right  of  property  in  a  slave  is  not  '  distinctly  and 
expressly  affirmed'  in  it.  Bear  in  mind,  the  judges  do 
not  pledge  their  judicial  opinion  that  such  right  is  im- 
pliedly  affirmed  in  the  Constitution;  but  they  pledge 
their  veracity  that  it  is  ' distinctly  and  expressly' 
affirmed  there — 'distinctly,'  that  is,  not  mingled  with 
anything  else — 'expressly,'  that  is,  in  words  meaning 
just  that,  without  the  aid  of  any  inference,  and  sus 
ceptible  of  no  other  meaning. 

"If  they  had  only  pledged  their  judicial  opinion  that 
such  right  is  affirmed  in  the  instrument  by  implication, 
it  would  be  open  to  others  to  show  that  neither  the 
word  'slave'  nor  'slavery'  is  to  be  found  in  the  Con 
stitution,  nor  the  word  'property'  even,  in  any  con 
nection  with  language  alluding  to  the  things  slave  or 
slavery;  and  that  wherever  in  that  instrument  the 
slave  is  alluded  to,  he  is  called  a  '  person ' ;  and  wher 
ever  his  master's  legal  right  in  relation  to  him  is  alluded 
to,  it  is  spoken  of  as  'service  or  labor  which  may  be 


274  THE  VOICE  OF  LINCOLN 

due' — as  a  debt  payable  in  service  or  labor.  Also  it 
would  be  open  to  show,  by  contemporaneous  history, 
that  this  mode  of  alluding  to  slaves  and  slavery,  in 
stead  of  speaking  of  them,  was  employed  on  purpose  to 
exclude  from  the  Constitution  the  idea  that  there 
could  be  property  in  man. 

"To  show  all  this  is  easy  and  certain. 

"When  this  obvious  mistake  of  the  judges  shall  be 
brought  to  their  notice,  is  it  not  reasonable  to  expect 
that  they  will  withdraw  the  mistaken  statement,  and 
reconsider  the  conclusion  based  upon  it? 

"And  then  it  is  to  be  remembered  that  'our  fathers 
who  framed  the  government  under  which  we  live'- 
the  men  who  made  the  Constitution — decided  this 
same  constitutional  question  in  our  favor  long  ago: 
decided  it  without  division  among  themselves  when 
making  the  decision;  without  division  among  them 
selves  about  the  meaning  of  it  after  it  was  made,  and, 
so  far  as  any  evidence  is  left,  without  basing  it  upon 
any  mistaken  statement  of  facts. 

"Under  all  these  circumstances,  do  you  really  feel 
yourselves  justified  to  break  up  this  government  unless 
such  a  court  decision  as  yours  is  shall  be  at  once  sub 
mitted  to  as  a  conclusive  and  final  rule  of  political 
action?  But  you  will  not  abide  the  election  of  a  Re 
publican  president !  In  that  supposed  event,  you  say, 
you  will  destroy  the  Union;  and  then,  you  say,  the  great 
crime  of  having  destroyed  it  will  be  upon  us.  That  is 
cool.  A  highwayman  holds  a  pistol  to  my  ear,  and 
mutters  through  his  teeth,  'Stand  and  deliver,  or  I 
shall  kill  you,  and  then  you  will  be  a  murderer ! ' 

"To  be  sure,  what  the  robber  demanded  of  me — my 
money — was  my  own;  and  I  had  a  clear  right  to  keep 
it;  but  it  was  no  more  my  own  than  my  vote  is  my 


LINCOLN  AT  COOPER  UNION          275 

own;  and  the  threat  of  death  to  me,  to  extort  my 
money,  and  the  threat  of  destruction  of  the  Union,  to 
extort  my  vote,  can  scarcely  be  distinguished  in  prin 
ciple. 

"A  few  words  now  to  Republicans.  It  is  exceedingly 
desirable  that  all  parts  of  this  great  Confederacy  shall 
be  at  peace,  and  in  harmony  one  with  another.  Let 
us  Republicans  do  our  part  to  have  it  so.  Even  though 
much  provoked,  let  us  do  nothing  through  passion  and 
ill  temper.  Even  though  the  Southern  people  will  not 
so  much  as  listen  to  us,  let  us  calmly  consider  then1  de 
mands,  and  yield  to  them  if,  in  our  deliberate  view  of 
our  duty,  we  possibly  can.  Judging  by  all  they  say 
and  do,  and  by  the  subject  and  nature  of  their  contro 
versy  with  us,  let  us  determine,  if  we  can,  what  will 
satisfy  them. 

"Will  they  be  satisfied  if  the  Territories  be  uncondi 
tionally  surrendered  to  them?  We  know  they  will  not. 
In  all  their  present  complaints  against  us,  the  Terri 
tories  are  scarcely  mentioned.  Invasions  and  insur 
rections  are  the  rage  now.  Will  it  satisfy  them  if,  in 
the  future,  we  have  nothing  to  do  with  invasions  and 
insurrections?  We  know  it  will  not.  We  so  know, 
because  we  know  we  never  had  anything  to  do  with 
invasions  and  insurrections;  and  yet  this  total  abstain 
ing  does  not  exempt  us  from  the  charge  and  the  de 
nunciation. 

"The  question  recurs,  What  will  satisfy  them? 
Simply  this:  we  must  not  only  let  them  alone,  but  we 
must  somehow  convince  them  that  we  do  let  them 
alone.  This,  we  know  by  experience,  is  no  easy  task. 
We  have  been  so  trying  to  convince  them  from  the  very 
beginning  of  our  organization,  but  with  no  success.  In 
all  our  platforms  and  speeches  we  have  constantly  pro- 


276  THE  VOICE   OF  LINCOLN 

tested  our  purpose  to  let  them  alone;  but  this  has  had 
no  tendency  to  convince  them.  Alike  unavailing  to 
convince  them  is  the  fact  that  they  have  never  detected 
a  man  of  us  in  any  attempt  to  disturb  them. 

"  These  natural  and  apparently  adequate  means  all 
failing,  what  will  convince  them  ?  This,  and  this  only : 
cease  to  call  slavery  wrong,  and  join  them  in  calling  it 
right.  And  this  must  be  done  thoroughly — done  in 
acts  as  well  as  in  words.  Silence  will  not  be  tolerated 
—we  must  place  ourselves  avowedly  with  them.  Sen 
ator  Douglas's  new  sedition  law  must  be  enacted  and 
enforced,  suppressing  all  declarations  that  slavery  is 
wrong,  whether  made  in  politics,  in  presses,  in  pulpits, 
or  in  private.  We  must  arrest  and  return  fugitive 
slaves  with  greedy  pleasure.  We  must  pull  down  our 
free-State  constitutions.  The  whole  atmosphere  must 
be  disinfected  from  all  taint  of  opposition  to  slavery, 
before  they  will  cease  to  believe  that  all  their  troubles 
proceed  from  us. 

"I  am  quite  aware  they  do  not  state  their  case  pre 
cisely  in  this  way.  Most  of  them  would  probably  say 
to  us,  'Let  us  alone;  do  nothing  to  us,  and  say  what 
you  please  about  slavery.7  But  we  do  let  them  alone, 
— have  never  disturbed  them, — so  that,  after  all,  it  is 
what  we  say  which  dissatisfies  them.  They  will  con 
tinue  to  accuse  us  of  doing,  until  we  cease  saying. 

"I  am  also  aware  they  have  not  as  yet  in  terms  de 
manded  the  overthrow  of  our  free-State  constitutions. 
Yet  those  constitutions  declare  the  wrong  of  slavery 
with  more  solemn  emphasis  than  do  all  other  sayings 
against  it;  and  when  all  these  other  sayings  shall  have 
been  silenced,  the  overthrow  of  these  constitutions  will 
be  demanded,  and  nothing  be  left  to  resist  the  demand. 
It  is  nothing  to  the  contrary  that  they  do  not  demand 


LINCOLN  AT  COOPER  UNION          277 

the  whole  of  this  just  now.  Demanding  what  they  do, 
and  for  the  reason  they  do,  they  can  voluntarily  stop 
nowhere  short  of  this  consummation.  Holding,  as  they 
do,  that  slavery  is  morally  right  and  socially  elevating, 
they  cannot  cease  to  demand  a  full  national  recognition 
of  it  as  a  legal  right  and  a  social  blessing. 

"Nor  can  we  justifiably  withhold  this  on  any  ground 
save  our  conviction  that  slavery  is  wrong.  If  slavery 
is  right,  all  words,  acts,  laws,  and  constitutions  against 
it  are  themselves  wrong  and  should  be  silenced  and 
swept  away.  If  it  is  right,  we  cannot  justly  object  to 
its  nationality, — its  universality;  if  it  is  wrong,  they 
cannot  justly  insist  upon  its  extension — its  enlarge 
ment.  All  they  ask  we  could  readily  grant,  if  we 
thought  slavery  right;  all  we  ask  they  could  as  readily 
grant,  if  they  thought  it  wrong.  Their  thinking  it 
right  and  our  thinking  it  wrong  is  the  precise  fact  upon 
which  depends  the  whole  controversy.  Thinking  it 
right,  as  they  do,  they  are  not  to  blame  for  desiring  its 
full  recognition  as  being  right;  but  thinking  it  wrong, 
as  we  do,  can  we  yield  to  them?  Can  we  cast  our 
votes  with  their  view,  and  against  our  own  ?  In  view 
of  our  moral,  social,  and  political  responsibilities,  can 
we  do  this? 

"Wrong  as  we  think  slavery  is,  we  can  yet  afford 
to  let  it  alone  where  it  is,  because  that  much  is  due  to 
the  necessity  arising  from  its  actual  presence  in  the 
nation;  but  can  we,  while  our  votes  will  prevent  it, 
allow  it  to  spread  into  the  national  Territories,  and 
to  overrun  us  here  in  these  free  States?  If  our  sense 
of  duty  forbids  this,  then  let  us  stand  by  our  duty 
fearlessly  and  effectively.  Let  us  be  diverted  by  none 
of  those  sophistical  contrivances  wherewith  we  are 
so  industriously  plied  and  belabored — contrivances 


278  THE  VOICE   OF  LINCOLN 

such  as  groping  for  some  middle  ground  between  the 
right  and  the  wrong:  vain  as  the  search  for  a  man 
who  should  be  neither  a  living  man  nor  a  dead  man; 
such  as  a  policy  of  ' don't  care'  on  a  question  about 
which  all  true  men  do  care;  such  as  Union  appeals 
beseeching  true  Union  men  to  yield  to  Disunionists, 
reversing  the  divine  rule,  and  calling,  not  the  sinners, 
but  the  righteous  to  repentance;  such  as  invocations 
to  Washington,  imploring  men  to  unsay  what  Wash 
ington  said  and  undo  what  Washington  did. 

"  Neither  let  us  be  slandered  from  our  duty  by  false 
accusations  against  us,  nor  frightened  from  it  by 
menaces  of  destruction  to  the  government,  nor  of 
dungeons  to  ourselves.  Let  us  have  faith  that  right 
makes  might,  and  in  that  faith  let  us  to  the  end  dare 
to  do  our  duty  as  we  understand  it." 

Holland,  who  wrote  only  five  years  after  the  de 
livery  of  this  speech,  says  concerning  it: 

"The  papers  of  the  city  were  full  of  his  address  and 
with  comments  upon  it  the  next  day.  The  Illinois 
lawyer  was  a  lion.  Critics  read  the  speech,  and  mar 
velled  at  its  pure  and  compact  English,  its  felicity  of 
statement  and  its  faultless  logic.  It  was  read  during 
the  day  not  only  by  New  York  but  by  nearly  all  New 
England." 

Greeley  wrote  of  Lincoln's  Cooper  Institute  speech: 

"I  do  not  hesitate  to  pronounce  Mr.  Lincoln's  speech 
at  Cooper  Institute  at  New  York  in  the  spring  of  1860 
the  very  best  political  address  to  which  I  have  ever 
listened,  and  I  have  heard  some  of  Webster's  grandest. 
As  a  literary  effort  it  would  not  of  course  bear  com 
parison  with  many  of  Webster's  speeches;  but  re 
garded  simply  as  an  effort  to  convince  the  largest  pos 
sible  number  that  they  ought  to  be  on  the  speaker's 


LINCOLN  AT  COOPER  UNION         279 

side,  and  not  on  the  other,  I  do  not  hesitate  to  pro 
nounce  it  unsurpassed." 

Shortly  thereafter  he  made  a  tour  through  New 
England,  speaking  in  Rhode  Island,  Connecticut,  and 
New  Hampshire.  His  tour  was  a  continued  triumph, 
and  doubtless  had  much  to  do  with  his  nomination 
for  the  presidency  at  Chicago  in  the  following  June. 

The  other  day  I  met  my  old  friend,  General  Robert 
P.  Kennedy  of  Bellefontaine,  Ohio.  In  1860  he  was 
a  student  at  Yale  College,  New  Haven,  and  heard 
Mr.  Lincoln  make  his  great  speech  in  that  city.  He 
told  me  what  a  wonderful  impression  the  speech  made 
upon  him  as  a  college  youth,  and  how  distinctly  he 
remembered  a  few  of  the  sentences  of  that  speech, 
which  are  not  contained  in  the  official  report,  but  which 
I  have  no  doubt  Abraham  Lincoln  delivered,  because 
the  language  and  thought  is  so  clearly  Lincolnesque. 

"I  hold  this  truth  to  be  self  evident:  What  is  right 
in  Connecticut  is  right  in  South  Carolina.  What  is 
wrong  in  Connecticut  is  wrong  in  South  Carolina.  I 
hold  human  slavery  to  be  wrong  in  Connecticut  and 
I  hold  human  slavery  to  be  wrong,  eternally  wrong, 
in  South  Carolina." 


CHAPTER  XIX 
LINCOLN'S  FIRST  INAUGURAL  ADDRESS 

THE  time— 1  P.  M.,  March  4,  1861.  The  place- 
east  portico  of  Capitol,  Washington,  D.  C.  The  as 
semblage — President  Buchanan,  judges  of  the  Supreme 
Court  of  the  United  States,  United  States  senators, 
members  of  the  House  of  Representatives,  governors 
of  the  States,  foreign  ambassadors  and  diplomats, 
heads  of  governmental  departments,  and  a  great  crowd 
of  political  admirers  and  adversaries  gathered  to  see 
and  hear  the  new  President  of  the  United  States. 

Three  of  the  nation's  most  distinguished  men 
representing  the  three  great  departments  of  the  govern 
ment  stood  in  the  foreground  of  this  immortal  assem 
blage:  Abraham  Lincoln,  the  chief  executive  elect, 
Roger  B.  Taney,  the  chief  justice  of  the  Supreme 
Court  of  the  United  States,  Stephen  A.  Douglas,  a 
leading  member  of  the  United  States  Senate  and  de 
feated  Democratic  candidate  for  the  presidency  of 
the  United  States,  standing  at  Lincoln's  side,  holding 
his  hat. 

We  are  reminded  here  of  1858  when  these  same 
three  persons  were  in  the  limelight  of  the  political 
arena,  not  because  conditions  are  the  same,  but,  upon 
the  contrary,  because  they  are  so  different.  Then 
Douglas  was  the  victor,  Lincoln  the  vanquished; 
Taney,  through  the  Dred  Scott  decision,  vindicated. 
To-day,  Douglas  was  the  vanquished,  Lincoln  the 
victor,  and  Taney  was  regretfully  administering  the 

280 


FIRST  INAUGURAL  ADDRESS          281 

oath  of  office  to  the  new  President  of  the  United  States, 
Abraham  Lincoln,  of  Illinois. 

Surely,  the  wheel  of  fate  had  pitilessly  reversed  the 
order  of  things  in  two  and  a  half  short  years. 

The  oath  being  administered,  Lincoln  began  his  re 
markable  inaugural  address.  But  a  few  preliminary 
words  should  be  written  before  we  are  ready  for  this 
address. 

Lincoln's  mental  make-up,  with  his  experience  as 
a  lawyer  and  party  leader,  required  him  first  of  all  to 
make  a  survey  of  the  whole  national  situation,  as  it 
would  present  itself  to  him  on  the  4th  of  March,  1861. 
This  he  proceeded  to  do  shortly  after  the  election. 

What  was  to  be  the  policy  of  the  new  administra 
tion  with  reference  to  the  political  situation  in  which 
the  new  President  would  find  himself  upon  taking  the 
reins  of  power? 

Again  we  see  Lincoln  taking  his  compass  and  chain 
and  making  his  survey,  through  his  first  inaugural 
address — an  address  that  dwelt  on  the  most  critical 
and  difficult  situation  ever  presented  to  an  incoming 
President,  whose  sceptre  of  power  was  to  be  delayed 
for  four  months  following  his  election.  In  the  meantime 
one  political  complication  after  another  was  develop 
ing  as  fast  as  the  daily  press  could  record  it. 

It  will  be  interesting  for  the  reader  to  know  that 
that  inaugural  address,  save  the  concluding  paragraphs, 
was  Lincoln's  own.  He  prepared  it  in  Springfield 
without  assistance  or  consultation  from  either  personal 
friend  or  political  adviser. 

Herndon,  his  law  partner,  furnishes  the  following 
very  interesting  account  of  the  preparation  of  that 
address:* 

*  Herndon,  vol.  II,  p.  188. 


282  THE  VOICE   OF  LINCOLN 

"When,  therefore,  he  began  on  his  inaugural  speech 
(late  in  January)  he  told  me  what  works  he  intended 
to  consult.  I  looked  for  a  long  list,  but  when  he  went 
over  it  I  was  greatly  surprised.  He  asked  me  to  furnish 
him  with  Henry  Clay's  great  speech  delivered  in  1850; 
Andrew  Jackson's  proclamation  against  Nullification; 
and  a  copy  of  the  Constitution.  He  afterwards  called 
for  Webster's  reply  to  Hayne,  a  speech  which  he  read 
when  he  lived  at  New  Salem,  and  which  he  always 
regarded  as  the  grandest  specimen  of  American  ora 
tory.  With  these  few  '  volumes/  and  no  further  sources 
of  reference,  he  locked  himself  up  in  a  room  upstairs  over 
a  store  across  the  street  from  the  State  House,  and 
there,  cut  off  from  all  communication  and  intrusion, 
he  prepared  the  address.  Though  composed  amid 
the  unromantic  surroundings  of  a  dingy,  dusty,  and 
neglected  back  room,  the  speech  has  become  a  memo 
rable  document.  Posterity  will  assign  to  it  a  high  rank 
among  historical  utterances;  and  it  will  ever  bear 
comparison  with  the  efforts  of  Washington,  Jefferson, 
Adams,  or  any  that  preceded  its  delivery  from  the 
steps  of  the  national  Capitol." 

Once  upon  a  time  Herndon  was  asked  what,  if  any 
thing,  he  had  to  do  with  the  preparation  of  that  ad 
dress,  to  which  he  replied: 

"You  don't  understand  Mr.  Lincoln.  No  man  ever 
asked  less  aid  than  he ;  his  confidence  in  his  own  ability 
to  meet  the  requirements  of  every  hour  was  so  marked 
that  his  friends  never  thought  of  tendering  their  aid, 
and  therefore  no  one  could  share  his  responsibilities. 
I  never  wrote  a  line  for  him;  he  never  asked  me  to. 
I  was  never  conscious  of  having  exerted  any  influence 
over  him.  He  often  called  out  my  views  on  some  phil 
osophical  question,  simply  because  I  was  a  fond  student 


FIRST  INAUGURAL  ADDRESS          283 

of  philosophy,  and  conceding  that  I  had  given  the  sub 
ject  more  attention  than  he;  he  often  asked  as  to  the 
use  of  a  word  or  the  turn  of  a  sentence,  but  if  I  volun 
teered  to  recommend  or  even  suggest  a  change  of  lan 
guage  which  involved  a  change  of  sentiment  I  found 
him  the  most  inflexible  man  I  have  ever  seen." 
The  first  inaugural  address  is  as  follows: 

" Fellow-Citizens  of  the  United  States:  In  compliance 
with  a  custom  as  old  as  the  government  itself,  I  appear 
before  you  to  address  you  briefly,  and  to  take  in  your 
presence  the  oath  prescribed  by  the  Constitution  of  the 
United  States  to  be  taken  by  the  President  before  he 
enters  on  the  execution  of  his  office. 

"I  do  not  consider  it  necessary  at  present  for  me  to 
discuss  those  matters  of  administration  about  which 
there  is  no  special  anxiety  or  excitement. 

"  Apprehension  seems  to  exist  among  the  people  of 
the  Southern  States  that  by  the  accession  of  a  Re 
publican  administration  their  property  and  their  peace 
and  personal  security  are  to  be  endangered.  There  has 
never  been  any  reasonable  cause  for  such  apprehension. 
Indeed,  the  most  ample  evidence  to  the  contrary  has 
all  the  while  existed  and  been  open  to  their  inspection. 
It  is  found  in  nearly  all  the  published  speeches  of  him 
who  now  addresses  you.  I  do  but  quote  from  one  of 
those  speeches  when  I  declare  that  '  I  have  no  purpose, 
directly  or  indirectly,  to  interfere  with  the  institution 
of  slavery  in  the  States  where  it  exists.  I  believe  I 
have  no  lawful  right  to  do  so,  and  I  have  no  inclination 
to  do  so.'  Those  who  nominated  and  elected  me  did 
so  with  full  knowledge  that  I  had  made  this  and  many 
similar  declarations,  and  had  never  recanted  them. 

"And,  more  than  this,  they  placed  in  the  platform 


284  THE  VOICE  OF  LINCOLN 

for  my  acceptance,  and  as  a  law  to  themselves  and  to 
me,  the  clear  and  emphatic  resolution  which  I  now 
read: 

'"Resolved,  That  the  maintenance  inviolate  of  the 
rights  of  the  States,  and  especially  the  right  of  each 
State  to  order  and  control  its  own  domestic  institutions 
according  to  its  own  judgment  exclusively,  is  essential 
to  that  balance  of  power  on  which  the  perfection  and 
endurance  of  our  political  fabric  depend,  and  we  de 
nounce  the  lawless  invasion  by  armed  force  of  the  soil 
of  any  State  or  Territory,  no  matter  under  what  pre 
text,  as  among  the  gravest  of  crimes.7 

"I  now  reiterate  these  sentiments;  and,  in  doing  so, 
I  only  press  upon  the  public  attention  the  most  con 
clusive  evidence  of  which  the  case  is  susceptible,  that 
the  property,  peace,  and  security  of  no  section  are  to 
be  in  any  wise  endangered  by  the  now  incoming  ad 
ministration.  I  add,  too,  that  all  the  protection  which, 
consistently  with  the  Constitution  and  the  laws,  can 
be  given,  will  be  cheerfully  given  to  all  the  States  when 
lawfully  demanded,  for  whatever  cause — as  cheerfully 
to  one  section  as  to  another. 

"  There  is  much  controversy  about  the  delivering  up 
of  fugitives  from  service  or  labor.  The  clause  I  now 
read  is  as  plainly  written  in  the  Constitution  as  any 
other  of  its  provisions: 

"'No  person  held  to  service  or  labor  in  one  State, 
under  the  laws  thereof,  escaping  into  another,  shall  in 
consequence  of  any  law  or  regulation  therein  be  dis 
charged  from  such  service  or  labor,  but  shall  be  deliv 
ered  up  on  claim  of  the  party  to  whom  such  service  or 
labor  may  be  due.' 

"It  is  scarcely  questioned  that  this  provision  was 
intended  by  those  who  made  it  for  the  reclaiming  of 


FIRST   INAUGURAL  ADDRESS          285 

what  we  call  fugitive  slaves;  and  the  intention  of  the 
lawgiver  is  the  law.  All  members  of  Congress  swear 
their  support  to  the  whole  Constitution — to  this  pro 
vision  as  much  as  to  any  other.  To  the  proposition, 
then,  that  slaves  whose  cases  come  within  the  terms  of 
this  clause  '  shall  be  delivered  up/  their  oaths  are 
unanimous.  Now,  if  they  would  make  the  effort  in 
good  temper,  could  they  not  with  nearly  equal  unanim 
ity  frame  and  pass  a  law  by  means  of  which  to  keep 
good  that  unanimous  oath? 

"  There  is  some  difference  of  opinion  whether  this 
clause  should  be  enforced  by  national  or  by  State 
authority;  but  surely  that  difference  is  not  a  very  ma 
terial  one.  If  the  slave  is  to  be  surrendered,  it  can  be 
of  but  little  consequence  to  him  or  to  others  by  which 
authority  it  is  done.  And  should  any  one  in  any  case 
be  content  that  his  oath  shall  go  unkept  on  a  merely 
unsubstantial  controversy  as  to  how  it  shall  be  kept? 

"  Again,  in  any  law  upon  this  subject,  ought  not  all 
the  safeguards  of  liberty  known  in  civilized  and  humane 
jurisprudence  to  be  introduced,  so  that  a  freeman  be 
not,  in  any  case,  surrendered  as  a  slave?  And  might 
it  not  be  well  at  the  same  time  to  provide  by  law  for 
the  enforcement  of  that  clause  in  the  Constitution 
which  guarantees  that  'the  citizen  of  each  State  shall 
be  entitled  to  all  privileges  and  immunities  of  citizens 
in  the  several  States '  ? 

1  i  I  take  the  official  oath  to-day  with  no  mental  reser 
vations,  and  with  no  purpose  to  construe  the  Constitu 
tion  or  laws  by  any  hypercritical  rules.  And  while  I 
do  not  choose  now  to  specify  particular  acts  of  Con 
gress  as  proper  to  be  enforced,  I  do  suggest  that  it  will 
be  much  safer  for  all,  both  in  official  and  private  sta 
tions,  to  conform  to  and  abide  by  all  those  acts  which 


286  THE  VOICE   OF  LINCOLN 

stand  unrepealed,  than  to  violate  any  of  them,  trusting 
to  find  impunity  in  having  them  held  to  be  unconsti 
tutional. 

"It  is  seventy- two  years  since  the  first  inauguration 
of  a  President  under  our  National  Constitution.  Dur 
ing  that  period  fifteen  different  and  greatly  distin 
guished  citizens  have,  in  succession,  administered  the 
executive  branch  of  the  government.  They  have  con 
ducted  it  through  many  perils,  and  generally  with  great 
success.  Yet,  with  all  this  scope  of  precedent,  I  now 
enter  upon  the  same  task  for  the  brief  constitutional 
term  of  four  years  under  great  and  peculiar  difficulty. 
A  disruption  of  the  Federal  Union,  heretofore  only 
menaced,  is  now  formidably  attempted. 

"I  hold  that,  in  contemplation  of  universal  law  and 
of  the  Constitution,  the  Union  of  these  States  is  per 
petual.  Perpetuity  is  implied,  if  not  expressed,  in  the 
fundamental  law  of  all  national  governments.  It  is 
safe  to  assert  that  no  government  proper  ever  had  a 
provision  in  its  organic  law  for  its  own  termination. 

"Continue  to  execute  all  the  express  provisions  of 
our  National  Constitution,  and  the  Union  will  endure 
forever — it  being  impossible  to  destroy  it  except  by 
some  action  not  provided  for  in  the  instrument  it 
self. 

"Again,  if  the  United  States  be  not  a  government 
proper,  but  an  association  of  States  in  the  nature  of 
contract  merely,  can  it,  as  a  contract,  be  peaceably  un 
made  by  less  than  all  the  parties  who  made  it?  One 
party  to  a  contract  may  violate  it — break  it,  so  to 
speak;  but  does  it  not  require  all  to  lawfully  rescind  it? 

"Descending  from  these  general  principles,  we  find 
the  proposition  that,  in  legal  contemplation,  the  Union 
is  perpetual  confirmed  by  the  history  of  the  Union 


FIRST   INAUGURAL  ADDRESS          287 

itself.  The  Union  is  much  older  than  the  Constitu 
tion.  It  was  formed,  in  fact,  by  the  Articles  of  Asso 
ciation  in  1774.  It  was  matured  and  continued  by 
the  Declaration  of  Independence  in  1776.  It  was  fur 
ther  matured,  and  the  faith  of  all  the  then  thirteen 
States  expressly  plighted  and  engaged  that  it  should 
be  perpetual,  by  the  Articles  of  Confederation  in  1778. 
And,  finally,  in  1787  one  of  the  declared  objects  for 
ordaining  and  establishing  the  Constitution  was  'to 
form  a  more  perfect  Union.' 

"But  if  the  destruction  of  the  Union  by  one  or  by  a 
part  only  of  the  States  be  lawfully  possible,  the  Union 
is  less  perfect  than  before  the  Constitution,  having  lost 
the  vital  element  of  perpetuity. 

"It  follows  from  these  views  that  no  State  upon  its 
own  mere  motion  can  lawfully  get  out  of  the  Union; 
that  resolves  and  ordinances  to  that  effect  are  legally 
void;  and  that  acts  of  violence,  within  any  State  or 
States,  against  the  authority  of  the  United  States,  are 
insurrectionary  or  revolutionary,  according  to  circum 
stances. 

"I  therefore  consider  that,  in  view  of  the  Constitu 
tion  and  the  laws,  the  Union  is  unbroken;  and  to  the 
extent  of  my  ability  I  shall  take  care,  as  the  Constitu 
tion  itself  expressly  enjoins  upon  me,  that  the  laws  of 
the  Union  be  faithfully  executed  in  all  the  States. 
Doing  this  I  deem  to  be  only  a  simple  duty  on  my  part  ; 
and  I  shall  perform  it  so  far  as  practicable,  unless  my 
rightful  masters,  the  American  people,  shall  withhold 
the  requisite  means,  or  in  some  authoritative  manner 
direct  the  contrary.  I  trust  this  will  not  be  regarded 
as  a  menace,  but  only  as  the  declared  purpose  of  the 
Union  that  it  will  constitutionally  defend  and  maintain 
itself. 


288  THE  VOICE  OF  LINCOLN 

"In  doing  this  there  needs  to  be  no  bloodshed  or 
violence;  and  there  shall  be  none,  unless  it  be  forced 
upon  the  national  authority.  The  power  confided  to 
me  will  be  used  to  hold,  occupy,  and  possess  the 
property  and  places  belonging  to  the  government,  and 
to  collect  the  duties  and  imposts;  but  beyond  what 
may  be  necessary  for  these  objects,  there  will  be  no 
invasion,  no  using  of  force  against  or  among  the  people 
anywhere.  Where  hostility  to  the  United  States,  in 
any  interior  locality,  shall  be  so  great  and  universal 
as  to  prevent  competent  resident  citizens  from  holding 
the  Federal  offices,  there  will  be  no  attempt  to  force 
obnoxious  strangers  among  the  people  for  that  object. 
While  the  strict  legal  right  may  exist  in  the  government 
to  enforce  the  exercise  of  these  offices,  the  attempt  to 
do  so  would  be  so  irritating,  and  so  nearly  imprac 
ticable  withal,  that  I  deem  it  better  to  forego  for  the 
time  the  uses  of  such  offices. 

"The  mails,  unless  repelled,  will  continue  to  be 
furnished  in  all  parts  of  the  Union.  So  far  as  possible, 
the  people  everywhere  shall  have  that  sense  of  perfect 
security  which  is  most  favorable  to  calm  thought  and 
reflection.  The  course  here  indicated  will  be  followed 
unless  current  events  and  experience  shall  show  a 
modification  or  change  to  be  proper,  and  in  every  case 
and  exigency  my  best  discretion  will  be  exercised  ac 
cording  to  circumstances  actually  existing;  and  with 
a  view  and  a  hope  of  a  peaceful  solution  of  the  national 
troubles  and  the  restoration  of  fraternal  sympathies 
and  affections. 

"That  there  are  persons  in  one  section  or  another 
who  seek  to  destroy  the  Union  at  all  events,  and  are 
glad  of  any  pretext  to  do  it,  I  will  neither  affirm  nor 
deny;  but  if  there  be  such,  I  need  address  no  word  to 


FIRST  INAUGURAL  ADDRESS          289 

them.  To  those,  however,  who  really  love  the  Union 
may  I  not  speak? 

"  Before  entering  upon  so  grave  a  matter  as  the  de 
struction  of  our  national  fabric,  with  all  its  benefits, 
its  memories,  and  its  hopes,  would  it  not  be  wise  to 
ascertain  precisely  why  we  do  it?  Will  you  hazard 
so  desperate  a  step  while  there  is  any  possibility  that 
any  portion  of  the  ills  you  fly  from  have  no  real  exist 
ence?  Will  you,  while  the  certain  ills  you  fly  to  are 
greater  than  all  the  real  ones  you  fly  from — will  you 
risk  the  commission  of  so  fearful  a  mistake? 

"All  profess  to  be  content  in  the  Union  if  all  con 
stitutional  rights  can  be  maintained.  Is  it  true,  then, 
that  any  right,  plainly  written  in  the  Constitution, 
has  been  denied?  I  think  not.  Happily  the  human 
mind  is  so  constituted  that  no  party  can  reach  to  the 
audacity  of  doing  this.  Think,  if  you  can,  of  a  single 
instance  in  which  a  plainly  written  provision  of  the 
Constitution  has  ever  been  denied.  If  by  the  mere 
force  of  numbers  a  majority  should  deprive  a  minority 
of  any  clearly  written  constitutional  right,  it  might, 
in  a  moral  point  of  view,  justify  revolution — certainly 
would  if  such  a  right  were  a  vital  one.  But  such  is 
not  our  case.  All  the  vital  rights  of  minorities  and  of 
individuals  are  so  plainly  assured  to  them  by  affirma 
tions  and  negations,  guarantees  and  prohibitions,  in 
the  Constitution,  that  controversies  never  arise  con 
cerning  them.  But  no  organic  law  can  ever  be  framed 
with  a  provision  specifically  applicable  to  every  ques 
tion  which  may  occur  in  practical  administration.  No 
foresight  can  anticipate,  nor  any  document  of  reason 
able  length  contain,  express  provisions  for  all  possible 
questions.  Shall  fugitives  from  labor  be  surrendered 
by  national  or  by  State  authority?  The  Constitution 


290  THE  VOICE   OF   LINCOLN 

does  not  expressly  say.  May  Congress  prohibit  slavery 
in  the  Territories  ?  The  Constitution  does  not  expressly 
say.  Must  Congress  protect  slavery  in  the  Territories  ? 
The  Constitution  does  not  expressly  say. 

"From  questions  of  this  class  spring  all  our  con 
stitutional  controversies,  and  we  divide  upon  them 
into  majorities  and  minorities.  If  the  minority  will 
not  acquiesce,  the  majority  must,  or  the  government 
must  cease.  There  is  no  other  alternative;  for  con 
tinuing  the  government  is  acquiescence  on  one  side 
or  the  other. 

"If  a  minority  in  such  case  will  secede  rather  than 
acquiesce,  they  make  a  precedent  which  in  turn  will 
divide  and  ruin  them;  for  a  minority  of  their  own  will 
secede  from  them  whenever  a  majority  refuses  to 
be  controlled  by  such  minority.  For  instance,  why 
may  not  any  portion  of  a  new  confederacy  a  year  or 
two  hence  arbitrarily  secede  again,  precisely  as  a  por 
tion  of  the  present  Union  now  claim  to  secede  from  it  ? 
All  who  cherish  disunion  sentiments  are  now  being 
educated  to  the  exact  temper  of  doing  this. 

"Is  there  such  perfect  identity  of  interests  among 
the  States  to  compose  a  new  Union,  as  to  produce 
harmony  only,  and  prevent  renewed  secession? 

"Plainly,  the  central  idea  of  secession  is  the  essence 
of  anarchy.  A  majority  held  in  restraint  by  constitu 
tional  checks  and  limitations,  and  always  changing 
easily  with  deliberate  changes  of  popular  opinions  and 
sentiments,  is  the  only  true  sovereign  of  a  free  people. 
Whoever  rejects  it  does,  of  necessity,  fly  to  anarchy 
or  to  despotism.  Unanimity  is  impossible;  the  rule 
of  a  minority,  as  a  permanent  arrangement,  is  wholly 
inadmissible;  so  that,  rejecting  the  majority  principle, 
anarchy  or  despotism  in  some  form  is  all  that  is  left. 


FIRST  INAUGURAL  ADDRESS          291 

"I  do  not  forget  the  position,  assumed  by  some, 
that  constitutional  questions  are  to  be  decided  by  the 
Supreme  Court;  nor  do  I  deny  that  such  decisions 
must  be  binding,  in  any  case,  upon  the  parties  to  a 
suit,  as  to  the  object  of  that  suit,  while  they  are  also 
entitled  to  very  high  respect  and  consideration  in  all 
parallel  cases  by  all  other  departments  of  the  govern 
ment.  And  while  it  is  obviously  possible  that  such 
decision  may  be  erroneous  in  any  given  case,  still  the 
evil  effect  following  it,  being  limited  to  that  particular 
case,  with  the  chance  that  it  may  be  overruled  and 
never  become  a  precedent  for  other  cases,  can  better 
be  borne  than  could  the  evils  of  a  different  practice. 

"At  the  same  time,  the  candid  citizen  must  confess 
that  if  the  policy  of  the  government,  upon  vital  ques 
tions  affecting  the  whole  people,  is  to  be  irrevocably 
fixed  by  decisions  of  the  Supreme  Court,  the  instant 
they  are  made,  in  ordinary  litigation  between  parties 
in  personal  actions,  the  people  will  have  ceased  to  be 
their  own  rulers,  having  to  that  extent  practically 
resigned  their  government  into  the  hands  of  that  emi 
nent  tribunal.  Nor  is  there  in  this  view  any  assault 
upon  the  court  or  the  judges.  It  is  a  duty  from  which 
they  may  not  shrink  to  decide  cases  properly  brought 
before  them,  and  it  is  no  fault  of  theirs  if  others  seek 
to  turn  their  decisions  to  political  purposes. 

' l  One  section  of  our  country  believes  slavery  is  right, 
and  ought  to  be  extended,  while  the  other  believes  it 
is  wrong,  and  ought  not  to  be  extended.  This  is  the 
only  substantial  dispute.  The  fugitive-slave  clause 
of  the  Constitution,  and  the  law  for  the  suppression 
of  the  foreign  slave-trade,  are  each  as  well  enforced, 
perhaps,  as  any  law  can  ever  be  in  a  community  where 
the  moral  sense  of  the  people  imperfectly  supports 


292  THE  VOICE  OF  LINCOLN 

the  law  itself.  The  great  body  of  the  people  abide  by 
the  dry  legal  obligation  in  both  cases,  and  a  few  break 
over  in  each.  This,  I  think,  cannot  be  perfectly  cured; 
and  it  would  be  worse  in  both  cases  after  the  separa 
tion  of  the  sections  than  before.  The  foreign  slave- 
trade,  now  imperfectly  suppressed,  would  be  ultimately 
revived,  without  restriction,  in  one  section,  while  fugi 
tive  slaves,  now  only  partially  surrendered,  would  not 
be  surrendered  at  all  by  the  other. 

"  Physically  speaking,  we  cannot  separate.  We  can 
not  remove  our  respective  sections  from  each  other, 
nor  build  an  impassable  wall  between  them.  A  hus 
band  and  wife  may  be  divorced,  and  go  out  of  the  pres 
ence  and  beyond  the  reach  of  each  other;  but  the 
different  parts  of  our  country  cannot  do  this.  They 
cannot  but  remain  face  to  face,  and  intercourse,  either 
amicable  or  hostile,  must  continue  between  them.  Is 
it  possible,  then,  to  make  that  intercourse  more  ad 
vantageous  or  more  satisfactory  after  separation  than 
before?  Can  aliens  make  treaties  easier  than  friends 
can  make  laws?  Can  treaties  be  more  faithfully  en 
forced  between  aliens  than  laws  can  among  friends? 
Suppose  you  go  to  war,  you  cannot  fight  always;  and 
when,  after  much  loss  on  both  sides,  and  no  gain  on 
either,  you  cease  fighting,  the  identical  old  questions 
as  to  terms  of  intercourse  are  again  upon  you. 

"This  country,  with  its  institutions,  belongs  to  the 
people  who  inhabit  it.  Whenever  they  shall  grow 
weary  of  the  existing  government,  they  can  exercise 
their  constitutional  right  of  amending  it,  or  their  revo 
lutionary  right  to  dismember  or  overthrow  it.  I  cannot 
be  ignorant  of  the  fact  that  many  worthy  and  patriotic 
citizens  are  desirous  of  having  the  National  Constitu 
tion  amended.  While  I  make  no  recommendation  of 


FIRST  INAUGURAL  ADDRESS          293 

amendments,  I  fully  recognize  the  rightful  authority 
of  the  people  over  the  whole  subject,  to  be  exercised 
in  either  of  the  modes  prescribed  in  the  instrument 
itself;  and  I  should,  under  existing  circumstances, 
favor  rather  than  oppose  a  fair  opportunity  being  af 
forded  the  people  to  act  upon  it.  I  will  venture  to 
add  that  to  me  the  convention  mode  seems  preferable, 
in  that  it  allows  amendments  to  originate  with  the 
people  themselves,  instead  of  only  permitting  them 
to  take  or  reject  propositions  originated  by  others  not 
specially  chosen  for  the  purpose,  and  which  might 
not  be  precisely  such  as  they  would  wish  to  either  ac 
cept  or  refuse.  I  understand  a  proposed  amendment 
to  the  Constitution — which  amendment,  however,  I 
have  not  seen — has  passed  Congress,  to  the  effect  that 
the  Federal  Government  shall  never  interfere  with 
the  domestic  institutions  of  the  States,  including  that 
of  persons  held  to  service.  To  avoid  misconstruction 
of  what  I  have  said,  I  depart  from  my  purpose  not  to 
speak  of  particular  amendments  so  far  as  to  say  that, 
holding  such  a  provision  to  now  be  implied  constitu 
tional  law,  I  have  no  objection  to  its  being  made  ex 
press  and  irrevocable. 

"The  chief  magistrate  derives  all  his  authority  from 
the  people,  and  they  have  conferred  none  upon  him  to 
fix  terms  for  the  separation  of  the  States.  The  people 
themselves  can  do  this  also  if  they  choose;  but  the 
executive,  as  such,  has  nothing  to  do  with  it.  His  duty 
is  to  administer  the  present  government,  as  it  came  to 
his  hands,  and  to  transmit  it,  unimpaired  by  him,  to 
his  successor. 

"Why  should  there  not  be  a  patient  confidence  in 
the  ultimate  justice  of  the  people?  Is  there  any  better 
or  equal  hope  in  the  world?  In  our  present  differences 


294  THE  VOICE  OF  LINCOLN 

is  either  party  without  faith  of  being  in  the  right  ?  If 
the  Almighty  Ruler  of  Nations,  with  his  eternal  truth 
and  justice,  be  on  your  side  of  the  North,  or  on  yours 
of  the  South,  that  truth  and  that  justice  will  surely 
prevail  by  the  judgment  of  this  great  tribunal  of  the 
American  people. 

"By  the  frame  of  the  government  under  which  we 
live,  this  same  people  have  wisely  given  their  public 
servants  but  little  power  for  mischief;  and  have,  with 
equal  wisdom,  provided  for  the  return  of  that  little  to 
their  own  hands  at  very  short  intervals.  While  the 
people  retain  their  virtue  and  vigilance,  no  administra 
tion,  by  any  extreme  of  wickedness  or  folly,  can  very 
seriously  injure  the  government  in  the  short  space  of 
four  years. 

"My  countrymen,  one  and  all,  think  calmly  and  well 
upon  this  whole  subject.  Nothing  valuable  can  be 
lost  by  taking  time.  If  there  be  an  object  to  hurry 
any  of  you  in  hot  haste  to  a  step  which  you  would 
never  take  deliberately,  that  object  will  be  frustrated 
by  taking  time;  but  no  good  object  can  be  frustrated 
by  it.  Such  of  you  as  are  now  dissatisfied,  still  have 
the  old  Constitution  unimpaired,  and,  on  the  sensitive 
point,  the  laws  of  your  own  framing  under  it;  while  the 
new  administration  will  have  no  immediate  power,  if 
it  would,  to  change  either.  If  it  were  admitted  that 
you  who  are  dissatisfied  hold  the  right  side  in  the  dis 
pute,  there  still  is  no  single  good  reason  for  precipitate 
action.  Intelligence,  patriotism,  Christianity,  and  a 
firm  reliance  on  Him  who  has  never  yet  forsaken  this 
favored  land,  are  still  competent  to  adjust  in  the  best 
way  all  our  present  difficulty. 

"In  your  hands,  my  dissatisfied  fellow-countrymen, 
and  not  in  mine,  is  the  momentous  issue  of  civil  war. 


FIRST  INAUGURAL  ADDRESS          295 

The  government  will  not  assail  you.  You  can  have  no 
conflict  without  being  yourselves  the  aggressors.  You 
have  no  oath  registered  in  heaven  to  destroy  the  gov 
ernment,  while  I  shall  have  the  most  solemn  one  to 
' preserve,  protect,  and  defend  it.' 

"I  am  loath  to  close.  We  are  not  enemies,  but 
friends.  We  must  not  be  enemies.  Though  passion 
may  have  strained,  it  must  not  break  our  bonds  of 
affection.  The  mystic  chord  of  memory,  stretching 
from  every  battle-field  and  patriot  grave  to  every  living 
heart  and  hearthstone  all  over  this  broad  land,  will  yet 
swell  the  chorus  of  the  Union  when  again  touched,  as 
surely  they  will  be,  by  the  better  angels  of  our  nature." 

Here  was  the  chart  for  the  sailing  of  the  ship  of  state 
under  its  new  captain,  Abraham  Lincoln. 

It  is  a  model  for  clearness,  consistency,  patience,  and 
patriotism,  even  in  temper  and  exact  in  justice  to 
South  no  less  than  North. 

He  contended  that  the  South  had  neither  consti 
tutional  right  nor  consistent  reason  for  attempting  to 
secede  and  organize  an  independent  government. 

And  yet,  he  did  not  speak  of  "  treason"  or  " rebellion" 
or  any  other  words  that  might  fan  the  flames  of  sec 
tional  hate.  Its  effect  upon  the  North  and  upon  the 
border  States  was  most  favorable,  but  in  the  South  it 
was  received  with  taunts  and  jeers. 

Greeley's  New  York  Tribune  said,  March  5: 

"It  is  marked  by  no  feeble  expression.  He  who 
runs  may  read  it  and  to  twenty  millions  of  people  it 
will  carry  the  tidings,  good  or  not,  as  the  case  may  be, 
that  the  Federal  government  of  the  United  States  is 
still  in  existence  with  a  man  at  the  head  of  it." 

After  all,  the  address  itself  must  be  read  and  reread 
and  studied  and  restudied  to  see  and  sense  its  clear- 


296  THE  VOICE  OF  LINCOLN 

ness  of  statement,  calmness,  and  the  conclusiveness  of 
its  course  of  reasoning. 

The  South,  however,  had  gotten  beyond  the  realm 
of  reason.  Its  leaders  had  fanned  it  into  a  fury,  hot 
with  hate. 

With  what  delicacy  and  tenderness  Lincoln  treats 
them  in  his  final  appeal  for  the  Union. 

Lincoln's  fame  as  statesman  and  patriot  may  well 
rest  upon  his  first  inaugural  address. 


CHAPTER  XX 
LINCOLN  THE  LEADER 

"He  that  ruleth  over  men  must  be  just,  ruling  in  the  fear  of  God." 
—II  Sam.  24  :  3. 

OUR  own  experience,  confirmed  by  the  records  of 
history,  demonstrate  that  leaders  are  born,  not  made. 
Men  and  birds  and  beasts,  indeed  almost  all  living 
creatures,  have  their  leaders,  and  in  most  cases  they 
lead  because  they  are  the  best  qualified  to  lead.  This 
is  peculiarly  true  as  to  the  leaders  of  public  thought. 

Evidences  of  Lincoln's  leadership  appeared  at  a 
comparatively  early  date.  The  children  of  the  neigh 
borhood  looked  to  him  to  furnish  their  entertainment 
by  speech  or  story.  The  grown-ups  looked  upon  him 
as  a  boy  of  unusual  education,  in  that  he  could  write 
and  write  well,  and  accordingly  they  called  upon  him 
to  attend  to  much  of  their  correspondence,  for  writing 
in  that  day  was  a  rather  unusual  accomplishment  in 
his  community. 

In  all  the  games  in  which  he  was  not  a  participant 
for  honors,  from  a  boxing  or  wrestling  match  to  a 
horse  race,  he  was  always  chosen  as  referee,  umpire, 
judge.  Such  was  his  universal  reputation  for  fairness 
and  fearlessness  that  his  judgments  and  decisions  were 
rarely,  if  ever,  questioned. 

His  great  physical  strength,  his  skill  with  the  maul 
and  the  ax  and  the  scythe,  gave  him  front  rank  in 
every  community  in  which  he  lived  as  boy  and  youth. 
These  qualities  at  that  age  were  peculiarly  marks  of 
excellence  and  superiority. 

297 


298  THE  VOICE   OF  LINCOLN 

Unusual  respect  and  even  veneration  was  paid  his 
physical  powers,  as  well  as  his  mental  capacity.  He 
was  a  helper  to  every  one  that  was  in  need,  from  the 
humblest  housewife  to  the  biggest  farmer  in  the  com 
munity,  with  a  gentleness,  a  kindness,  a  gratitude  not 
ordinarily  found  in  giants.  He  was  friend  of  every 
body  and  enemy  of  nobody.  Even  as  a  boy  it  could 
well  be  said  of  him  that  he  always  had  "  charity  for 
all  and  malice  toward  none/7 

The  "people"  at  Gentryville,  the  "folks"  at  New 
Salem,  all  seemed  to  see  in  this  boy  and  youth  one  of 
their  own  kind.  He  was  born  of  them,  and  among 
them,  and  in  some  way  or  other  he  just  seemed  to  "  be 
long."  He  emulated  their  virtues,  eschewed  their 
vices,  and  yet  maintained  the  respect  and  good-will 
of  all. 

We  remember  how  he  was  chosen  captain  in  the 
Black  Hawk  War  in  1832  over  an  older  and  more  ex 
perienced  man,  Kilpatrick.  The  people  did  it.  They 
believed  in  him  and  wanted  to  honor  him. 

We  remember  how,  though  a  Whig,  he  was  appointed 
postmaster  at  New  Salem  in  1833  by  President  Jack 
son,  a  Democrat,  because  the  people  wanted  him  and 
generally  recommended  him. 

We  remember  how  he  rose  to  leadership  in  the  gen 
eral  assembly  of  Illinois,  so  that  he  was  the  unanimous 
choice  of  his  party  for  speaker  of  the  House  in  1838 
and  again  in  1840.  He  was  recognized  as  the  Whig 
party  leader  of  Illinois  in  the  national  campaign  of 
1840,  1844,  and  1848,  indeed  in  almost  every  national 
campaign  until  the  death  of  the  Whig  party. 

It  has  been  said  that  all  this  recognition  of  leadership 
on  the  part  of  Lincoln  in  early  life,  as  well  as  later, 
was  unconscious  and  unsought  so  far  as  Lincoln  was 


LINCOLN  THE   LEADER  299 

concerned.  We  deceive  ourselves  and  misrepresent 
Lincoln.  There  have  been  few  men  in  our  American 
life  more  ambitious  than  he. 

The  first  reference  that  he  makes  to  his  political 
ambition  was  in  his  first  circular  at  twenty-three  years 
of  age,  when  he  became  a  candidate  for  the  first  time 
for  member  of  the  Illinois  House  of  Representatives. 
You  will  remember  what  he  said  in  the  circular.  It 
will  bear  repetition  here  in  this  chapter: 

"  Every  man  is  said  to  have  his  peculiar  ambition. 
Whether  it  be  true  or  not,  I  can  say,  for  one,  that  I 
have  no  other  so  great  as  that  of  being  truly  esteemed 
of  my  fellow-men,  by  rendering  myself  worthy  of  their 
esteem.  How  far  I  shall  succeed  in  gratifying  this  am 
bition  is  yet  to  be  developed." 

In  1854,  in  one  of  his  great  speeches,  he  said: 

"  Twenty- two  years  ago,  Judge  Douglas  and  I  first 
became  acquainted.  We  were  both  young  then — he 
a  trifle  younger  than  I.  Even  then  we  were  both  am 
bitious, — I,  perhaps  quite  as  much  so  as  he.  With 
me,  the  race  of  ambition  has  been  a  failure — a  flat 
failure;  with  him,  it  has  been  one  of  splendid  success. 
His  name  fills  the  nation,  and  is  not  unknown  even 
in  foreign  lands.  I  affect  no  contempt  for  the  high 
eminence  he  has  reached.  So  reached  that  the  op 
pressed  of  my  species  might  have  shared  with  me  in 
the  elevation,  I  would  rather  stand  on  that  eminence 
than  wear  the  richest  crown  that  ever  pressed  a  mon 
arch's  brow." 

This  high  and  honorable  ambition  upon  the  part 
of  Abraham  Lincoln  "of  being  truly  esteemed  of  my 
fellow-men  by  rendering  myself  worthy  of  their  es 
teem,"  should  be  the  motive  power  of  more  men  in 
the  public  service  to-day. 


300  THE  VOICE   OF   LINCOLN 

There  is  a  lot  of  human  nature  about  most  of  us. 
Some  have  more  than  others.  Lincoln  was  of  this 
latter  type.  He  knew  the  average  man  better  than 
the  average  man  knew  himself,  and  he  always  seemed 
to  take  that  average  man's  view-point,  that  is  his  best 
view-point,  his  noblest  view-point,  and  then  he  would 
present  his  view  in  such  a  simple  straightforward 
manner  that  the  average  citizen  would  adopt  it  much 
in  surprise  that  Lincoln  had  only  presented  his  audi 
tor's  own  view  of  things  after  all;  therefore,  being  the 
auditor's  own,  it  must  be  correct.  For  'tis  with  our 
judgments  as  with  our  watches:  "None  go  just  alike, 
but  each  believes  his  own." 

It  has  been  said  that  consistency  is  the  plea  of  the 
small  mind.  That  contains  the  half  of  a  truth  and 
the  whole  of  a  lie. 

Lincoln  himself  asserted  the  right  and  the  duty  of 
changing  his  mind  whenever  he  found  that  he  was 
wrong;  nevertheless,  in  following  the  course  of  his  life 
from  its  Lake  Itasca  down  to  the  great  Gulf,  we  find  a 
consistency,  a  sincerity,  a  straightforwardness  of  the 
current  that  is  astonishing.  True,  he  is  human  enough 
to  present  now  and  then  a  trifling,  a  temporary  de 
parture,  but  in  the  substance  of  things,  in  the  essen 
tials  of  each  day's  duties,  in  his  conduct  toward  his 
fellow  men,  his  fellow  lawyers,  his  fellow  statesmen, 
the  Lincoln  of  Gentryville,  Indiana,  of  New  Salem, 
Illinois,  of  Springfield,  Illinois,  was  the  same  Lincoln  at 
Washington,  D.  C.,  always  animated  by  a  " passion 
for  justice,"  the  achievement  of  which  was  the  goal 
of  his  life,  and  to  which  he  was  as  true  as  the  magnet 
to  the  pole. 

I  have  already  discussed  at  considerable  length 
"his  passion  for  justice,"  in  a  previous  chapter  devoted 


LINCOLN   THE   LEADER  301 

to  that  element  of  his  character.  That  dominating 
element,  unaffected,  uniform,  unchanged  and  unchang 
ing  all  through  his  life  was  recognized  as  much  a  part 
of  "  Honest  Abe,"  as  were  his  arms  and  legs. 

This  abiding  confidence  of  the  people  in  his  judg 
ment,  in  his  sincerity,  in  his  honesty,  coupled  with 
the  fact  that  he  spoke  their  simple  speech,  gave  him 
tremendous  persuasive  power  in  moulding  their  judg 
ment  and  their  action. 

His  understanding  of  the  understanding  of  the  twelve 
men  in  the  jury-box  effectively  equipped  him  to  under 
stand  the  understanding  of  the  larger  jury  at  the  ballot- 
box. 

We  have  noticed  with  what  diligence  Lincoln  con 
tinued  the  practice  of  law  after  his  return  from  Con 
gress  in  1849,  until  the  campaign  of  1854.  By  common 
consent  of  his  fellow  lawyers,  a  rather  unusual  thing, 
he  was  easily  the  leader  of  the  Illinois  bar,  at  least  of 
the  eighth  circuit. 

We  have  seen  that  leadership  recognized  by  his  fre 
quent  choice  of  his  fellow  lawyers  to  preside  in  the 
trial  of  cases  in  the  absence  of  the  regular  judge,  a 
most  unusual  honor  and  recognition  of  leadership, 
for  there  were  giants  in  those  days.  But  Lincoln  not 
merely  physically,  but  mentally,  was  the  master  of 
them  all.  The  people  believed  it  and  the  lawyers  of 
his  day  generally  admitted  it. 

One  thousand  eight  hundred  and  fifty-four  marked 
a  new  crisis  in  the  politics  of  the  nation  upon  the  one 
great  disturbing  question — slavery,  which  was  thrown 
into  the  foreground  of  the  political  stage  by  the  pas 
sage  of  Douglas's  Kansas-Nebraska  Bill. 

The  Missouri  Compromise  of  1820  said  save  and, 
except  the  State  of  Missouri,  there  should  be  no  slavery 


302  THE  VOICE  OF   LINCOLN 

in  the  national  territory  north  of  36°  30';  the  Kansas- 
Nebraska  bill  said  you  can  have  slavery  in  Kansas 
and  Nebraska  if  you  choose.  It  was  Douglas's  bid 
for  the  support  of  the  South,  and  indicated  to  Lincoln 
unmistakably  the  purpose  to  bring  about  the  further 
spread  of  slavery.  It  was  to  him  a  new  call  to  arms 
in  behalf  of  liberty  and  democracy,  and  we  find  him 
in  the  campaign  of  that  year  for  the  senatorship.  He 
was  the  unanimous  candidate  of  the  Whig  party,  and 
while  they  had  a  plurality  of  the  legislature,  they  did 
not  have  a  majority.  There  were  sufficient  anti-Ne 
braska  Democrats  to  prevent  an  election.  Their  candi 
date  was  Lyman  Trumbull.  Rather  than  see  the 
election  of  a  senator  of  pro-slavery  views,  Lincoln 
magnanimously  withdrew  and  urged  his  party  fol 
lowers  and  friends  to  go  to  the  support  of  Trumbull, 
who,  while  he  had  but  few  votes,  with  Lincoln's  many 
votes,  could  be  elected.  Again  Lincoln  demonstrated 
his  leadership  in  a  great  cause,  though  it  meant  for 
the  time  being  his  own  defeat. 

In  1856  the  Republican  party  was  organized  in 
Illinois  at  a  convention  held  in  Bloomington,  at  which 
Lincoln  made  one  of  the  greatest  speeches  of  his  life. 
Indeed,  so  absorbed  and  entranced  were  the  news 
paper  men  who  were  present,  that  they  forgot  to  take 
notes  during  the  progress  of  the  speech  and  found 
themselves,  at  its  close,  with  only  a  memory  of  his 
splendid  triumph.  Lincoln  himself  had  no  manu 
script,  and  hence  this  great  speech  has  become  known 
as  the  "Lost  Speech"  of  Lincoln. 

Lincoln's  wonderful  address  before  the  Republican 
Convention  of  1856  established  him  at  once  as  the 
Republican  leader  of  Illinois.  Though  not  at  the 
Republican  National  Convention,  held  the  same  year 


LINCOLN  THE   LEADER  303 

at  Philadelphia,  he  received  in  that  convention  110 
votes  for  the  vice-presidency  of  the  United  States  as 
against  William  L.  Dayton  of  New  Jersey,  the  success 
ful  nominee.  This  fact  is  worthy  of  mention,  because 
many  of  us  have  been  taught  to  believe  that  even  in 
1860,  two  years  after  the  great  debate  with  Douglas 
in  1858,  Lincoln  was  wholly  unknown  to  the  country 
and  to  the  leaders  of  his  party. 

His  leadership  in  the  debate  with  Douglas  in  1858, 
one  of  the  great  political  and  forensic  battles  upon 
the  great  issue  of  slavery,  had  been  widely  discussed 
by  the  press  of  the  nation.  Later,  his  speeches  in  Kan 
sas,  in  Ohio,  in  New  York,  and  in  New  England  had 
invited,  yes,  compelled,  attention  to  this  coming  man 
with  his  simplicity  of  manner,  his  strength  of  mind, 
his  persuasive  power  upon  the  platform,  and  his  fitness 
for  party  leadership. 

That  Lincoln  himself  looked  forward  to  future  leader 
ship  there  can  be  no  doubt. 

The  fact  that  he  overruled  all  his  personal  and  polit 
ical  friends  on  the  first  paragraph  of  his  great  Spring 
field  speech  demonstrated  not  only  the  firmness  of 
his  convictions,  the  soundness  of  his  judgment,  but 
that  he  was  steering  his  ship  of  state  for  some  great 
future  political  sea. 

An  interesting  incident  in  the  Lincoln-Douglas  de 
bate  illustrating  Lincoln's  leadership  occurred  at  Free- 
port.  He  had  written  out  a  number  of  questions  to 
be  submitted  to  Senator  Douglas  for  an  answer,  among 
which  was  the  following: 

"Can  the  people  of  a  United  States  Territory,  in 
any  lawful  way,  against  the  wish  of  any  citizen  of  the 
United  States,  exclude  slavery  from  its  limits  prior 
to  the  formation  of  a  State  constitution?" 


304  THE  VOICE  OF  LINCOLN 

The  reader  is  no  doubt  aware  that  the  Dred  Scott 
decision,  as  it  has  become  popularly  known,  was  the 
basis  of  many  great  political  arguments  in  the  years 
1857,  1858,  1859,  and  1860.  The  effect  of  the  decision 
was  that  a  slave  was  property,  and  that  any  citizen 
could  take  any  of  his  property  into  any  Territory  of  the 
United  States,  and  that  the  Constitution  of  the  Union 
would  protect  him  there  in  the  possession,  use,  and  en 
joyment  of  such  property. 

This  now  being  a  federal  law  by  virtue  of  the  Dred 
Scott  case,  a  Territory  either  by  act  of  Congress  or  by 
its  local  legislature  could  not  in  any  wise  impair  or 
defeat  that  right.  Hence,  the  pertinency  of  this  ques 
tion. 

Before  submitting  the  question  to  Senator  Douglas, 
it  was  carefully  written  out  by  Lincoln  and  submitted 
to  a  number  of  his  friends  in  order  to  obtain  their 
judgment  as  to  the  wisdom  of  putting  it  to  Senator 
Douglas  at  the  Freeport  debate.  They  were  unani 
mously  against  the  question. 

They  urged  that  Douglas  would  answer  it  in  the 
affirmative  and  that  that  answer  would  cost  Lincoln 
the  senatorship.  Lincoln  overruled  them,  as  he  had 
done  with  reference  to  their  judgment  on  the  opening 
paragraph  of  the  Springfield  speech  heretofore  referred 
to,  and  in  ignoring  the  advice  and  counsel  of  his  friends 
he  said: 

"I  am  after  larger  game.  The  battle  of  1860  is 
worth  a  hundred  of  this." 

The  question  was  put  as  written  out  by  Lincoln. 
Douglas  answered  in  the  affirmative  and  gave  as  his 
reason  "  unfriendly  legislation  by  the  local  legislature." 

A  parrot  will  repeat  what  she  heard  her  master  say 
yesterday,  a  philosopher  will  diagnose  the  sayings  and 


LINCOLN  THE  LEADER  305 

doings  of  to-day,  but  it  is  only  a  prophet  who  can 
forecast  what  will  happen  in  the  to-morrows. 

Lincoln  put  this  question  to  Douglas,  not  to  beat 
Douglas  for  the  senatorship,  but  to  beat  him  for  the 
presidency.  No,  on  second  thought  I  think  this  is  an 
injustice  to  Lincoln.  I  don't  think  he  had  in  mind  any 
person's  triumph  or  defeat,  but  rather  the  greater 
question,  the  triumph  or  defeat  of  a  great  human 
cause.  He  saw  with  almost  divine  prescience  that 
Douglas's  answer  to  that  question  would  place  him  at 
once  in  square  and  irreconcilable  conflict  with  the  great 
Democratic  party  of  the  South,  and  one  of  two  things 
must  happen  to  Douglas:  he  would  either  lose  their 
support  for  the  nomination  of  President  or  the  elec 
tion  of  President. 

Solomon  has  said: 

" Where  there  is  no  vision,  the  people  perish." 

And  Isaiah  has  spoken  about  the  essential  qualities 
of  vision  in  the  following  words : 

"They  err  in  vision;  they  stumble  in  judgment." 

Lincoln's  vision  was  well-nigh  divine,  but  it  was 
arrived  at  by  the  orderly  processes  of  his  own  mind, 
applying  the  principle  of  causation  to  conditions  and 
forces  as  they  are  to-day,  with  a  view  of  predetermining 
their  effects  to-morrow  and  next  year. 

So  he  stood  firm,  almost  obstinately,  for  the  open 
ing  paragraph  of  the  Springfield  speech  and  for  the 
question  put  to  Douglas  in  the  Freeport  debate. 

He  had  vision,  and,  therefore,  he  did  not  "  stumble 
in  judgment." 

Lincoln  was  right.  Douglas  won  the  senatorship, 
but  his,  after  all,  was  only  a  Pyrrhic  victory.  Herndon 
relates  that  upon  the  aggregate  vote  cast  for  members 
of  the  legislature  Lincoln  beat  Douglas  by  some  four 


306  THE  VOICE   OF  LINCOLN 

thousand  votes,  but  that  owing  to  the  partisan  forma 
tion  of  the  legislative  districts  Douglas  had  the  major 
ity  of  the  legislative  vote. 

Though  the  victor  in  the  senatorship  fight  in  Illinois, 
Douglas's  reception  in  Democratic  circles  was  far  less 
favorable  than  the  reception  accorded  Abraham  Lin 
coln,  the  vanquished,  in  Republican  circles.  Why? 
Lincoln  had  stood  four-square  for  a  great  cause,  for 
human  liberty,  not  only  as  written  in  the  Declaration 
of  Independence,  but  to  be  written  into  the  political 
policies  of  the  life  of  the  nation. 

He  himself  says,  after  that  debate  was  over  and  after 
he  had  been  twice  defeated  for  the  United  States 
senatorship  of  Illinois  in  1854  and  1858  in  a  letter 
to  Doctor  Henry,  an  intimate  personal  and  political 
friend : 

"I  am  glad  I  made  the  late  race.  It  gave  me  a 
hearing  on  the  great  and  durable  questions  of  the  age 
which  I  could  have  had  in  no  other  way;  and  though  I 
now  sink  out  of  view  and  shall  be  forgotten,  I  believe 
I  have  made  some  marks  which  will  tell  for  the  cause 
of  liberty  long  after  I  am  gone." 

In  a  letter  to  Henry  Asbury  in  1858  he  said: 

".  .  .  The  fight  must  go  on.  The  cause  of  civil 
liberty  must  not  be  surrendered  at  the  end  of  one  or 
even  one  hundred  defeats.  Douglas  had  the  ingenuity 
to  be  supported  in  the  late  contest  both  as  the  best 
means  to  break  down  and  to  uphold  the  slave  interest. 
No  ingenuity  can  keep  these  antagonistic  elements  in 
harmony  long.  Another  explosion  will  soon  come." 

Here  we  have  the  very  genius  of  leadership,  a  leader 
ship  that  stands  for  measures  rather  than  men,  for 
causes  rather  than  candidates,  for  principles  rather 
than  persons. 


LINCOLN  THE   LEADER  307 

This  campaign  to  date  had  tested  and  tried  Lincoln 
as  to  his  capacity  for  political  leadership  in  three 
notable  instances : 

1.  He  had  followed  his  own  judgment  as  to  the 
"house  divided  against  itself"  paragraph  of  the  Spring 
field  speech  against  the  advice  of  all  of  his  friends. 

2.  He  had  followed  his  own  judgment  in  the  question 
that  he  put  to  Douglas  in  the  Freeport  debate,  likewise 
against  the  advice  of  all  his  friends. 

3.  By  the  Freeport  question  to  Douglas  and  Doug 
las's  answer  he  had  driven  Douglas  into  a  position 
upon  the  question  of  slavery  so  hostile  to  the  Southern 
point  of  view  that  Douglas,  as  the  Democratic  nomi 
nee  of  1860,  became  impossible  so  long  as  the  South 
was  in  the  saddle. 

While  Lincoln  had  lost  the  senatorship  he  had  gained 
friends  and  fame  throughout  the  country,  not  merely 
as  a  great  debater,  but  as  an  able  leader  upon  the 
great  questions  that  were  to  stir  this  country  from 
coast  to  coast  in  the  coming  national  election. 

This  independence  and  self-reliance,  after  having 
carefully  and  conscientiously  studied  the  whole  ques 
tion,  was  one  of  the  marked  characteristics  of  Abraham 
Lincoln.  It  was  as  true  of  him  legally  as  it  was  true 
politically.  His  own  partner,  Herndon,  repeatedly 
says  that  he  never  knew  him  to  advise  even  with  as 
sociate  counsel  as  to  the  best  course  to  pursue  in  the 
trial  of  a  cause  in  any  court.  Yet  he  was  not  dis 
courteous,  but,  upon  the  contrary,  a  perfect  gentleman, 
not  only  with  the  court,  but  with  all  the  counsel  en 
gaged  in  any  cause.  No  member  of  the  Springfield 
bar  was  ever  treated  with  such  uniform  courtesy  as 
was  Lincoln,  and  the  chief  reason  was  that  that  was 
the  kind  of  treatment  he  gave  in  return. 


308  THE  VOICE  OF  LINCOLN 

We  shall  see  much  of  this  independent  judgment  of 
Lincoln's  in  the  following  pages. 

The  story  of  the  National  Republican  Conven 
tion  held  in  the  "Wigwam"  at  Chicago  in  1860  is 
familiar  to  all  of  us.  It  is  unnecessary  to  review  its 
details. 

His  campaign  managers  were  specifically  instructed 
that  there  were  to  be  no  bargains  for  votes. 

It  has  been  questioned  as  to  whether  Judge  Davis 
and  others  specifically  followed  this  instruction. 

If  any  departure  was  made  from  it,  Mr.  Lincoln 
never  felt  obligated  in  the  least. 

Lincoln  was  nominated  upon  the  third  ballot,  which 
was  followed  by  a  public  demonstration  that  had  never 
before  been  witnessed  in  any  political  convention. 

The  people  of  his  party  were  evidently  with  him 
from  the  start,  but  the  leaders  had  grave  doubts. 
Most  of  the  men  upon  the  committee  who  went  to 
Springfield  officially  to  notify  Lincoln  of  his  nomination 
were  of  the  latter  class.  Upon  the  whole  he  made  a 
favorable  impression,  however,  both  in  their  reception 
and  by  his  few  brief  remarks.  He  was  importuned 
from  all  quarters  to  take  the  stump  in  the  national 
campaign.  Here  again  the  leader  asserts  himself:  he 
positively  but  diplomatically  declined,  saying  among 
other  things  the  following: 

"Those  who  will  not  read  or  heed  what  I  have  al 
ready  publicly  said  would  not  heed  or  read  a  repetition 
of  it.  'If  they  hear  not  Moses  and  the  prophets, 
neither  will  they  be  persuaded  if  one  rose  from  the 
dead!'" 

Many  of  his  friends  in  different  sections  of  the  coun 
try  wrote  him  personal  letters  containing  inquiries  as 
to  this  and  that  touching  his  public  utterances.  As 


LINCOLN  THE   LEADER  309 

to  one  of  these  he  ventured  an  explanation,  but  added 
this  significant  language: 

"I  have  made  this  explanation  to  you  as  a  friend, 
but  I  wish  no  explanation  made  to  our  enemies.  What 
they  want  is  a  squabble  and  a  fuss,  and  that  they  can 
have  if  we  explain  and  they  cannot  have  it  if  we  don't." 

The  night  of  his  election  his  ability  to  lead  the  people 
was  evidenced  by  two  facts  occurring  in  Springfield. 

1.  He  had  decided  that  night  at  the  telegraph-office 
upon  his  Cabinet  substantially  as  finally  constituted. 

2.  In  a  little  speech  he  made  to  his  neighbors  who 
came  to  the  Lincoln  home  to  express  their  enthusiasm, 
he  said: 

"In  all  our  rejoicing  let  us  neither  express  nor  cher 
ish  any  hard  feeling  toward  any  citizen  who  has  dif 
fered  from  us.  Let  us  at  all  times  remember  that  all 
American  citizens  are  members  of  a  common  country 
and  should  dwell  together  in  the  bonds  of  fraternal 
feeling." 

Here  in  these  few  words  to  his  friends  and  neighbors 
was  outshadowed  not  only  Lincoln  leadership,  but  the 
one  great  issue  of  his  administration,  to  which  all  other 
issues  must  subordinate  themselves,  and  that  was:  We 
are  "all  members  of  a  common  country."  Therefore, 
the  slogan  must  be  "The  Union — it  must  be  preserved." 


CHAPTER  XXI 

LINCOLN  THE  LEADER 

(CONTINUED) 

LINCOLN  was,  after  all,  a  minority  President.  The 
slavery  men  had  been  confounded  by  divisions  among 
them.  Thereby  Lincoln  had  saved  the  election;  could 
he  now  save  the  Union?  Here  was  the  occasion  and 
opportunity  for  leadership  of  the  highest  quality,  and 
I  have  always  felt  that  Lincoln's  greatness  in  this  be 
half  has  never  been  fully  appreciated. 

We  have  read  much  and  heard  much  about  his  sub 
duing  Seward,  his  patient  handling  of  Chase,  and  his 
diplomatic  dealing  with  Stanton,  whom  he  finally 
brought  to  love  him  as  much  as  Stanton  could  love 
any  man. 

But  Lincoln's  greatness  appeared  not  merely  in  deal 
ing  with  individual  man.  It  was  the  handling  of  men 
in  the  mass;  in  short,  in  the  moulding  and  managing 
of  public  opinion. 

It  will  be  remembered  that  in  his  debate  with  Doug 
las  touching  the  importance  of  public  opinion,  he  said : 

"In  this  and  like  communities,  public  sentiment  is 
everything.  With  public  sentiment,  nothing  can  fail; 
without  it,  nothing  can  succeed.  Consequently,  he 
who  moulds  public  sentiment  goes  deeper  than  he  who 
enacts  statutes  or  pronounces  decisions.  He  makes 
statutes  and  decisions  possible  or  impossible  to  be 
executed." 

Of  the  total  vote  cast  for  the  presidency,  the  electoral 
vote  in  and  of  itself  is  exceedingly  misleading.  That 

310 


LINCOLN  THE   LEADER  311 

vote  stood:  Lincoln  180  votes,  Douglas  12,  Brecken- 
ridge  72,  and  Bell  39.  But  the  popular  vote  really, 
after  all,  indexed  public  sentiment.  That  vote  stood 
as  follows:  Lincoln  1,858,000,  Douglas  1,366,000,  Breck- 
enridge  848,000,  and  Bell  591,000.  The  total  popular 
vote  was  4,663,000,  of  which  Lincoln's  vote  was  a  bare 
forty  per  cent.  Even  in  the  States  north  of  Mason  and 
Dixon's  line  Lincoln  was  barely  a  majority  candidate. 
Something  had  to  be  done  at  once  to  unify  public  sen 
timent  in  the  North.  The  votes  for  Douglas  and  Bell 
were  so  numerous  that  substantial  representation  must 
be  given  to  those  leaders  in  the  new  administration  in 
order  to  keep  their  followers  loyal  to  the  great  cause 
of  the  Union. 

His  Cabinet  chosen  by  himself,  was  as  follows: 
For  secretary  of  state,  William  H.  Seward,  of  New 
York;  for  secretary  of  treasury,  Salmon  P.  Chase,  of 
Ohio;  for  secretary  of  war,  Simon  Cameron,  of  Penn 
sylvania;  for  attorney-general,  Edward  Bates,  of  Mis 
souri;  for  secretary  of  interior,  Caleb  B.  Smith,  of  In 
diana;  for  secretary  of  navy,  Gideon  Welles,  of  Con 
necticut;  for  postmaster-general,  Montgomery  Blair,  of 
Maryland. 

No  such  political  Cabinet  had  ever  been  chosen  in 
this  country  or  any  other.  The  majority  of  the  mem 
bers  had  been  rival  candidates  for  the  presidency  in 
the  convention  that  nominated  Lincoln.  Four  of  them 
had  been  former  Democrats,  three  of  them  former 
Whigs.  Some  of  Lincoln's  Republican  friends  re 
monstrated  with  him  against  a  Republican  President 
having  a  Democratic  Cabinet.  Lincoln  replied,  half 
in  jest,  but  more  than  half  in  wisdom,  that  he  would 
ofttimes  sit  in  the  Cabinet,  and  that  would  make  it 
stand  four  to  four. 


312  THE  VOICE   OF  LINCOLN 

Not  a  big  man  in  the  Cabinet  but  believed  him 
self  bigger  than  the  President  and  bigger  than  all  the 
other  big  men  in  the  Cabinet.  If  such  thing  were  pos 
sible,  each  Cabinet  officer  distrusted  the  others  much 
more  than  each  distrusted  the  President.  Yet  each 
member  of  that  Cabinet  in  a  peculiar  way  repre 
sented  in  large  measure  a  substantial  fraction  of  public 
opinion,  especially  public  opinion  from  a  personal  or 
partisan  standpoint. 

Lincoln's  paramount  object  in  the  construction  of 
this  Cabinet  was  to  unify  public  sentiment  of  the  North 
so  as  to  be  able  effectually  to  meet  the  united  public 
sentiment  of  the  South  in  the  great  crisis  confronting 
him. 

In  the  selection  of  a  Cabinet  two  plans  were  open  to 
the  new  President :  The  first,  to  surround  himself  with 
men  of  inferior  loyalty  who  would  fawn  upon  and  flatter 
him  and  act  merely  as  his  faithful  subordinates,  or: 
second,  with  an  official  family  made  up  of  the  biggest 
and  most  representative  leaders  of  all  political  parties 
and  elements  from  all  the  various  sections  of  the  country, 
even  at  the  risk  of  eclipsing  or  menacing  his  ability  to 
lead  in  such  a  company  of  distinguished  men.  He 
chose  the  latter. 

It  is  fair  to  presume  that  no  other  President  would 
have  chosen  such  a  Cabinet,  and  no  other  President 
could  have  managed  such  a  Cabinet  so  as  to  get  out  of 
it  the  efficiency  that  Lincoln  did  get  out  of  it. 

Now  comes  the  play  for  place  and  power.  Volumes 
have  been  written  upon  Lincoln's  mastery  over  his 
Cabinet  ministers,  and  I  take  pleasure  in  referring  to 
Rothschild  on  "Lincoln,  Master  of  Men/7  dealing 
largely  with  his  Cabinet  ministers  and  generals.  Only 
a  brief  review  of  his  relations  with  his  Cabinet  will  be 
given  here. 


LINCOLN  THE   LEADER  313 

Seward  was  the  most  keenly  and  conscientiously 
disappointed  candidate  at  the  Chicago  Convention. 
His  long  experience  in  public  life,  twice  governor  of 
New  York,  twice  senator,  a  distinguished  leader  of 
his  party,  gave  him  the  lead  in  that  convention. 
To  his  great  surprise  he  was  defeated,  and  at  first  he 
and  his  friends  took  that  defeat  very  bitterly.  Out 
wardly  he  seemed  magnanimous  by  taking  an  active 
part  in  the  national  campaign  in  behalf  of  Lincoln  and 
Hamlin,  but  his  inward  disappointment  and  humilia 
tion  strikingly  appear  in  his  personal  letters  to  his 
wife.  In  one  of  these  letters  he  described  himself  as 
"a  leader  deposed  by  my  own  party  in  the  hour  of 
organization  for  decisive  battle." 

This  was  no  doubt  his  conscientious  attitude.  He 
honestly  believed  that  not  only  was  he  the  first  and 
only  fit  man  for  that  distinguished  honor,  but  that 
Abraham  Lincoln,  the  nominee,  was  wholly  unfit  for 
that  distinguished  honor. 

Early  after  the  election  Lincoln  invited  him  to  be 
come  his  secretary  of  state  in  the  new  administration. 
Seward  took  three  weeks  to  answer.  He  accepted  but 
with  such  a  haughty  and  lordly  air  that  the  President 
elect  was  greatly  pained. 

Later,  on  the  Saturday  before  the  inauguration,  he 
withdrew  that  acceptance.  Lincoln  took  tune  to  meet 
this  unexpected  withdrawal,  and  on  the  following 
Monday  morning  addressed  a  brief  note  to  Seward,  in 
which,  among  other  things,  he  said: 

"It  is  the  subject  of  the  most  painful  solicitude  with 
me ;  and  I  feel  constrained  to  beg  that  you  will  counter 
mand  the  withdrawal.  The  public  interest,  I  think, 
demands  that  you  should;  and  my  personal  feelings 
are  deeply  enlisted  in  the  same  direction.  Please  con 
sider  and  answer  by  9  o'clock  A.  M.  to-morrow." 


314  THE  VOICE  OF  LINCOLN 

Seward  did  enter  the  Cabinet  as  secretary  of  state, 
but  not  because  he  loved  Lincoln  or  had  any  measure 
of  faith  in  his  ability  as  the  head  of  the  new  adminis 
tration;  but  as  he  said  in  a  letter  to  Mrs.  Seward: 

"I  have  advised  Mr.  L.  that  I  will  not  decline.  It 
is  inevitable.  I  will  try  to  save  freedom  and  my  coun- 
try." 

A  few  days  later  he  wrote: 

"I  have  assumed  a  sort  of  dictatorship  for  defence; 
and  am  laboring  night  and  day,  with  the  cities  and 
States.  ...  It  seems  to  me  that  if  I  am  absent  only 
three  days,  this  administration,  the  Congress,  and 
the  District  would  fall  into  consternation  and  de 
spair.  I  am  the  only  hopeful,  calm,  conciliatory  person 
here." 

Strange,  indeed,  that  Seward  had  so  misgauged  the 
measure  of  the  new  President  as  to  feel  warranted  in 
sending  him  before  he  had  been  in  office  thirty  days 
the  following  memorandum: 

"  Some  Thoughts  for  the  President's  Consideration, 
April  1,  1861 

"First.  We  are  at  the  end  of  a  month's  administra 
tion,  and  yet  without  a  policy,  either  domestic  or  for 
eign. 

"Second.  This,  however,  is  not  culpable,  and  it 
has  even  been  unavoidable.  The  presence  of  the  Senate, 
with  the  need  to  meet  applications  for  patronage,  have 
prevented  attention  to  other  and  more  grave  matters. 

"Third.  But  further  delay  to  adopt  and  prosecute 
our  policies  for  both  domestic  and  foreign  affairs  would 
not  only  bring  scandal  on  the  administration,  but 
danger  upon  the  country. 

"Fourth.    To  do  this  we  must  dismiss  the  applicants 


LINCOLN  THE   LEADER  315 

for  office.  But  how?  I  suggest  that  we  make  the 
local  appointments  forthwith,  leaving  foreign  or  gen 
eral  ones  for  ulterior  and  occasional  action. 

"  Fifth.  The  policy  at  home.  I  am  aware  that  my 
views  are  singular,  and  perhaps  not  sufficiently  ex 
plained.  My  system  is  built  upon  this  idea  as  a  ruling 
one,  namely,  that  we  must 

"  CHANGE  THE  QUESTION  BEFORE  THE  PUBLIC  FROM 
ONE  UPON  SLAVERY,  OR  ABOUT  SLAVERY,  for  a  ques 
tion  upon  UNION  OR  DISUNION: 

"In  other  words,  from  what  would  be  regarded  as 
a  party  question,  to  one  of  patriotism  or  union. 

"The  occupation  or  evacuation  of  Fort  Sumter, 
although  not  in  fact  a  slavery  or  a  party  question,  is 
so  regarded.  Witness  the  temper  manifested  by  the 
Republicans  in  the  Free  States,  and  even  by  the  Union 
men  in  the  South. 

"I  would  therefore  terminate  it  as  a  safe  means  for 
changing  the  issue.  I  deem  it  fortunate  that  the  last 
administration  created  the  necessity. 

"For  the  rest,  I  would  simultaneously  defend  and 
re-enforce  all  the  ports  in  the  Gulf,  and  have  the  navy 
recalled  from  foreign  stations  to  be  prepared  for  a 
blockade.  Put  the  island  of  Key  West  under  martial 
law. 

"This  will  raise  distinctly  the  question  of  union  or 
disunion.  I  would  maintain  every  fort  and  possession 
in  the  South. 

FOR   FOREIGN   NATIONS 

"I  would  demand  explanations  from  Spain  and 
France,  categorically,  at  once. 

"I  would  seek  explanations  from  Great  Britain  and 
Russia,  and  send  agents  into  Canada,  Mexico,  and 


316  THE  VOICE  OF  LINCOLN 

Central  America  to  rouse  a  vigorous  continental  spirit 
of  independence  on  this  continent  against  European 
intervention. 

"And,  if  satisfactory  explanations  are  not  received 
from  Spain  and  France, 

"Would  convene  Congress  and  declare  war  against 
them. 

"But  whatever  policy  we  adopt,  there  must  be  an 
energetic  prosecution  of  it. 

"For  this  purpose  it  must  be  somebody's  business 
to  pursue  and  direct  it  incessantly. 

"Either  the  President  must  do  it  himself,  and  be 
all  the  while  active  in  it,  or 

"Devolve  it  on  some  member  of  his  cabinet.  Once 
adopted,  debates  on  it  must  end,  and  all  agree  and 
abide. 

"It  is  not  in  my  especial  province; 

"But  I  neither  seek  to  evade  nor  assume  respon 
sibility."  * 

Such  a  note  as  this  would  have  cost  a  Cabinet  officer 
in  anybody  else's  Cabinet  than  Lincoln's  a  summary 
dismissal  or  at  least  a  deserved  rebuke. 

No  matter  what  one's  prestige,  place,  or  power  may 
be,  he  is  never  excused  from  being  a  gentleman. 

Lincoln  even  had  a  right  to  presume  that  Secretary 
Seward,  distinguished  for  his  learning,  his  culture,  and 
social  experience,  would  not  so  far  forget  his  good 
manners  as  to  address  such  a  note  to  a  backwoods  law 
yer  from  a  little  town  in  Illinois. 

But  nature's  gentleman  ignored  the  insults  between 
the  lines,  no  less  than  in  the  lines,  and  sent  Seward  a 
lesson  in  good  manners,  good  policy,  and  good  govern 
ment  that  he  never  forgot. 

*  Herndon,  vol.  II,  p.  201. 


LINCOLN  THE   LEADER  317 

Upon  the  same  day  the  note  was  received,  Lincoln 
replied  as  follows : 

EXECUTIVE  MANSION,  April  1,  1861. 
"HON.  W.  H.  SEWARD. 

"My  dear  Sir:  Since  parting  with  you,  J  have  been 
considering  your  paper  dated  this  day,  and  entitled 
'Some  Thoughts  for  the  President's  Consideration/ 
The  first  proposition  in  it  is,  'First.  We  are  at  the 
end  of  a  month's  administration,  and  yet  without  a 
policy,  either  domestic  or  foreign/ 

"At  the  beginning  of  that  month,  in  the  inaugural, 
I  said :  '  The  power  confided  to  me  will  be  used  to  hold, 
occupy,  and  possess  the  property  and  places  belonging 
to  the  government,  and  to  collect  the  duties  and  im 
posts.'  This  had  your  distinct  approval  at  the  time; 
and  taken  in  connection  with  the  order  I  immediately 
gave  General  Scott,  directing  him  to  employ  every 
means  in  his  power  to  strengthen  and  hold  the  forts, 
comprises  the  exact  domestic  policy  you  now  urge, 
with  the  single  exception  that  it  does  not  propose  to 
abandon  Fort  Sumter. 

"Again,  I  do  not  perceive  how  the  re-enforcement 
of  Fort  Sumter  would  be  done  on  a  slavery  or  a  party 
issue,  while  that  of  Fort  Pickens  would  be  on  a  more 
national  and  patriotic  one. 

"The  news  received  yesterday  in  regard  to  St. 
Domingo  certainly  brings  a  new  item  within  the  range 
of  our  foreign  policy;  but  up  to  that  time  we  have 
been  preparing  circulars  and  instructions  to  ministers 
and  the  like,  all  in  perfect  harmony,  without  even  a 
suggestion  that  we  had  no  foreign  policy. 

"Upon  your  closing  proposition — that  'whatever 
policy  we  adopt,  there  must  be  an  energetic  prosecu 
tion  of  it. 


318  THE  VOICE   OF   LINCOLN 

"  'For  this  purpose  it  must  be  somebody's  business 
to  pursue  and  direct  it  incessantly. 

"  '  Either  the  President  must  do  it  himself,  and  be 
all  the  while  active  in  it,  or 

"  t  Devolve  it  on  some  member  of  his  cabinet.  Once 
adopted,  debates  on  it  must  end,  and  all  agree  and 
abide' — I  remark  that  if  this  must  be  done,  I  must 
do  it.  When  a  general  line  of  policy  is  adopted,  I  ap 
prehend  there  is  no  danger  of  its  being  changed  with 
out  good  reason,  or  continuing  to  be  a  subject  of  un 
necessary  debate;  still,  upon  points  arising  in  its  prog 
ress  I  wish,  and  suppose  I  am  entitled  to  have,  the 
advice  of  all  the  cabinet. 

"Your  obedient  servant, 

"A.  LINCOLN." 

For  personal  forbearance,  political  magnanimity,  and 
practical  poise,  this  answer  of  President  Lincoln  is  un 
excelled  in  diplomatic  correspondence.  It  was  never 
revealed  to  the  public  until  thirty  years  thereafter, 
when  published  by  Nicolay  and  Hay. 

No  wonder  that  later  this  same  Secretary  Seward,  in 
a  letter  to  his  wife,  wrote : 

"  Executive  force  and  vigor  are  rare  qualities.  The 
President  is  the  best  of  us." 

Henceforth  the  secretary  of  state  revised  his  esti 
mate  of  his  chief,  and  learned  not  only  to  respect  his 
power  but  respect  his  personality. 

By  the  by,  the  time  came  when  Seward's  political 
prestige  was  assailed  by  a  committee  from  the  Senate 
composed  of  some  of  its  most  distinguished  members, 
who  called  upon  President  Lincoln  demanding  the  dis 
missal  of  Secretary  Seward  from  the  Cabinet. 

In  this  company  of  distinguished  senators  were  Col- 


LINCOLN   THE   LEADER  319 

lamore,  Sumner,  Fessenden,  Wade,  Trumbull,  Grimes, 
Harris,  Howard,  and  Pomeroy.  As  they  filed  into  the 
President's  room  that  night  they  saw  present  his  entire 
Cabinet  save  Secretary  Seward,  whose  dismissal  they 
urged. 

The  Senate  committee  made  a  sharp  assault  upon 
the  administration  and  particularly  upon  Seward's  part 
in  it.  The  position  of  the  Cabinet  was  best  stated  by 
Stanton  when  he  said  in  reply  to  the  senators : 

"This  cabinet,  gentlemen,  is  like  yonder  window. 
Suppose  you  allowed  it  to  be  understood  that  passers- 
by  might  knock  out  one  pane  of  glass — just  one  at  a 
time, — how  long  do  you  think  any  panes  would  be  left 
in  it?" 

The  Cabinet  stood  together  for  Seward.  Chase 
was  the  one  embarrassed  man  who  sat  that  time  as 
upon  a  hot  griddle,  for  he  had  been  one  of  the  chief 
instigators  of  the  anti-Seward  movement,  and  the  sen 
ators  present,  as  well  as  President  Lincoln,  thoroughly 
knew  it. 

Chase  finally  was  called  upon  to  state  his  position 
with  reference  to  Seward.  Upon  this  question  Roths 
child  in  " Master  of  Men,"  says: 

"Even  Chase,  brought  to  bay,  was  forced  into  turn 
ing,  after  a  fashion,  against  the  men  who  had  come  to 
strengthen  his  position.  He  found  himself  in  a  pre 
dicament.  To  agree  with  the  Senators  in  their  attacks 
upon  Seward  or  the  administration,  though  he  had 
made  the  identical  criticisms  to  them  and  to  others, 
was,  in  that  presence,  obviously  out  of  the  question. 
To  take  ground  effectively  against  these  charges,  with 
out  stultifying  himself,  was,  under  existing  conditions, 
equally  impossible.  So  he  joined  with  his  fellow 
ministers,  as  best  he  could,  protesting  angrily,  the  while, 


320  THE  VOICE   OF  LINCOLN 

against  his  dilemma,  and  expressing  regret  that  he  had 
come.'7 

Before  the  adjournment  Lincoln  again  polled  the 
committee.  Of  the  eight  present  only  four  voted 
against  Seward,  indicating  a  decided  change  in  the 
situation  from  what  the  committee  had  at  first  ex 
hibited. 

Lincoln  had  saved  Seward. 

Chase  is  the  one  human  enigma  of  the  Lincoln  Cabi 
net,  a  marvellous  combination  of  personal  dignity, 
classical  scholarship,  legal  ability,  public  experience, 
conscientious  conviction  against  human  slavery.  He 
was  the  second  man  Lincoln  had  determined  upon  the 
night  of  the  election  for  a  leading  member  of  his  Cabi 
net.  Chase's  acceptance  of  the  secretaryship  of  the 
treasury  was  not  finally  made  until  after  the  nomina 
tion  had  been  sent  to  the  Senate  on  the  4th  of  March, 
1861. 

Chase,  like  Seward,  could  not  yet  understand  why 
the  great  National  Republican  Convention  at  Chicago 
should  have  preferred  Lincoln  to  him.  His  pride  had 
been  piqued  by  the  fact  that  Seward  had  been  given 
the  preference  for  secretary  of  state,  and  after  learning 
that  his  name  had  gone  to  the  Senate  for  confirmation, 
called  upon  President  Lincoln  to  decline  the  appoint 
ment.  What  happened  in  that  interview  with  Presi 
dent  Lincoln  is  not  reported.  Suffice  it  to  say  that 
Lincoln's  view  prevailed  and  Chase  became  a  member 
of  the  Cabinet. 

It  must  be  freely  conceded  that  Chase's  management 
of  the  nation's  finances  place  him  in  the  class  of  Ham 
ilton  and  Gallatin,  and  nobody  appreciated  the  skill 
and  efficiency  of  his  public  service  in  the  great  national 
crisis  more  than  his  chief,  the  President. 


LINCOLN  THE   LEADER  321 

But  with  all  nature's  lavish  gifts,  with  which  this 
man  had  been  so  richly  endowed,  he  was  literally  ob 
sessed  with  his  own  vanity,  his  own  selfishness,  and  a 
supreme  jealousy  of  all  possible  rivals.  He  was  pe 
culiarly  susceptible  to  flattery  and  loved  it  in  such 
wholesale  quantities  as  would  have  been  strikingly 
offensive  to  almost  any  other  man.  He  had  no  confi 
dence  in  the  President's  ability  and  less  in  the  ability 
of  every  other  member  of  the  Cabinet. 

He  was  a  prodigal  letter-writer,  and  in  his  early  ser 
vice  in  the  government  mostly  directed  his  activity 
against  his  chief.  As  a  specimen  from  his  erratic  pen, 
I  submit  the  following  from  the  Chase  diary: 

"Ten  days  of  battle  and  then  such  changes — changes 
in  which  it  is  difficult  to  see  the  public  good.  How  sin 
gularly  all  our  worst  defeats  have  followed  administra 
tive  er —  no,  blunders." 

To  one  of  his  friends  he  wrote: 

"I  am  not  responsible  for  the  management  of  the 
war  and  have  no  voice  in  it,  except  that  I  am  not  for 
bidden  to  make  suggestions  and  do  so  now  and  then 
when  I  cannot  help  it." 

He  also  wrote  the  President  a  note  something  after 
the  manner  of  Seward's  "  Thoughts."  It  was  as  un 
gracious  as  it  was  unjustifiable. 

His  penchant  for  letter-writing  found  a  strange  out 
let  in  an  active  and  general  correspondence  that  he 
had  with  civil  and  military  leaders  throughout  the 
country,  who  had  found  themselves,  for  some  reason 
or  other,  in  disfavor  with  President  Lincoln.  He 
seemed  delighted  to  be  encouraging  disloyalty  and 
sympathizing  with  antiadministration  men. 

His  diary  furnishes  an  absolute  demonstration  of 
his  disloyalty  to  President  Lincoln,  personally  and 


322  THE  VOICE   OF  LINCOLN 

politically.  The  selfish  qualities  that  dominated  his 
life  came  out  in  connection  with  what  became  known 
as  the  "Pomeroy  Circular."  His  active  disloyalty 
to  Abraham  Lincoln  while  in  the  Cabinet  in  con 
nection  with  his  war  against  Seward  to  force  him  out 
of  the  administration,  and  his  war  against  Lincoln 
to  beat  him  for  a  renomination,  so  clouds  what  other 
wise  might  have  been  a  most  distinguished  career  of 
this  able  Cabinet  officer,  that  the  one  incredible  thing 
above  all  others  is  that  his  friends  should  ever  have 
permitted  his  diary  to  be  given  to  the  public. 

In  the  beginning  of  this  administration  he  was  prob 
ably  no  more  disappointed  or  distrustful,  and  con 
scientiously  so,  of  the  capacity  of  Lincoln  for  the  great 
trust  committed  to  his  hands  than  Seward;  but  Seward 
had  been  disillusioned.  He  had  early  come  to  under 
stand  Lincoln,  and  to  concede  him  a  large  measure  of 
the  very  great  ability  that  he  clearly  possessed. 

Not  so  with  Chase.  He  was  the  one  disgruntled, 
dissatisfied,  disloyal  man  toward  his  chief  practically 
throughout  his  service  in  the  Cabinet.  He  had  re 
signed  several  times,  the  President  refusing  to  accept 
his  resignation,  and  Chase  did  not  further  press  the 
issue.  Finally,  in  June,  1864,  the  next  day  after  the 
famous  Cabinet  meeting  with  the  United  States  sen 
ators,  at  the  White  House,  as  noted  in  the  discussion  of 
Seward's  relations  with  Lincoln,  Chase  sent  in  his 
resignation.  At  that  time  the  resignations  of  both 
Seward  and  Chase  were  in  the  hands  of  the  President. 
He  refused  to  accept  Seward's  and  much  to  Chase's 
surprise  accepted  his. 

The  formal  acceptance  was  by  letter  to  the  secre 
tary  as  follows : 

"Your  resignation  of  the  office  of  Secretary  of  the 


LINCOLN  THE   LEADER  323 

Treasury,  sent  me  yesterday,  is  accepted.  Of  all  I 
have  said  in  commendation  of  your  ability  and  fidelity 
I  have  nothing  to  unsay;  and  yet  you  and  I  have 
reached  a  point  of  mutual  embarrassment  in  our  official 
relations,  which  it  seems  cannot  be  overcome  or  longer 
sustained,  consistently  with  the  public  service." 

Later  on  Lincoln,  in  justification  of  this  acceptance, 
said  to  a  friend: 

"  I  will  tell  you  how  it  is  with  Chase.  It  is  the  easiest 
thing  in  the  world  for  a  man  to  fall  into  a  bad  habit. 
Chase  has  fallen  into  two  bad  habits.  ...  He  thinks 
he  has  become  indispensable  to  the  country;  that  his 
intimate  friends  know  it,  and  he  cannot  comprehend 
why  the  country  does  not  understand  it.  He  also 
thinks  he  ought  to  be  President ;  he  has  no  doubt  what 
ever  about  that.  It  is  inconceivable  to  him  why  people 
have  not  found  it  out;  why  they  don't  as  one  man, 
rise  up  and  say  so.  ...  He  knows  that  I  could  not 
make  it.  (The  nomination  of  Field  in  New  York). 
He  knows  that  the  nomination  of  Field  (as  assistant 
secretary  of  the  treasury)  would  displease  the  Unionists 
of  New  York,  would  delight  our  enemies,  and  injure 
our  friends.  He  knows  that  I  could  not  make  it  with 
out  seriously  offending  the  strongest  supporters  of 
the  government  in  New  York,  and  that  the  nomina 
tion  would  not  strengthen  him  anywhere  or  with  any 
body.  Yet  he  resigns  because  I  will  not  make  it.  He 
is  either  determined  to  annoy  me,  or  that  I  shall  pat 
him  on  the  shoulder  and  coax  him  to  stay.  I  don't 
think  I  ought  to  do  it.  I  will  not  do  it.  I  will  take 
him  at  his  word." 

Being  now  out  of  the  Cabinet,  he  pursued  with  rare 
relish  his  petty  criticisms  of  Lincoln. 

In  1864,  Chief  Justice  Taney  of  Dred  Scott  notoriety 


324  THE  VOICE   OF  LINCOLN 

had  died,  and  a  new  chief  justice  had  to  be  selected 
by  President  Lincoln  to  preside  over  the  greatest  ju 
dicial  tribunal  of  the  nation.  Who  should  it  be? 
Naturally  a  man  of  large  legal  ability  and  experience, 
whose  education  and  equipment  qualified  him  for  that 
high  and  honorable  place.  Likewise,  another  great 
qualification  must  prevail,  and  that  is  sympathy  with 
the  fundamental  constitutional  and  legislative  policies 
of  the  administration.  Many  legislative  acts  were 
being  challenged  upon  the  basis  of  unconstitutionality 
in  the  federal  courts. 

Naturally,  President  Lincoln  would  cast  about  him 
for  some  great  lawyer,  some  great  jurist,  who  was  not 
inherently  hostile  to  the  legislative  and  administrative 
policies  from  the  Northern  point  of  view. 

Then  it  was  that  an  unheard-of  and  almost  unbeliev 
able  thing  happened.  This  same  Salmon  P.  Chase, 
who  had  caused  Lincoln  much  embarrassment  while 
in  the  Cabinet,  had  written  the  bitterest  criticism  of 
him,  had  become  a  candidate  against  him  to  defeat 
him  for  renomination,  and  continued  his  bitter  and 
unreasonable  criticism  even  after  he  had  retired  from 
the  Cabinet,  this  Chase  was  nominated  by  President 
Lincoln  as  chief  justice  of  the  Supreme  Court  of  the 
United  States. 

Would  you  have  done  it?  Could  you  have  done 
it? 

It  is  only  another  overwhelming  proof  that  Lin 
coln,  as  President,  always  kept  in  the  foreground  one 
"  central  idea,"  and  that  was  the  Union,  its  perpetuity 
and  its  welfare,  no  matter  how  his  personal  pride  might 
be  hurt  or  his  personal  fortunes  affected. 

As  showing  his  splendid  magnanimity  along  these 
lines,  I  want  to  quote  a  note  quoted  by  Rothschild  in 


LINCOLN   THE   LEADER  325 

his  "  Lincoln,  Master  of  Men."  Judge  E.  Rockwood 
Hoar  and  Richard  H.  Dana  called  on  Lincoln  in  behalf 
of  Chase's  appointment  as  chief  justice.  In  that  inter 
view  Lincoln  said: 

"Mr.  Chase  is  a  very  able  man.  He  is  a  very  am 
bitious  man  and  I  think  on  the  subject  of  the  presidency 
a  little  insane.  He  has  not  always  behaved  very  well 
lately  and  people  say  to  me — '  Now  is  the  time  to  crush 
him  out/  Well,  I  am  not  in  favor  of  crushing  anybody 
out.  If  there  is  anything  that  a  man  can  do  and  do 
it  well,  I  say  let  him  do  it.  Give  him  a  chance." 

Edwin  M.  Stanton — we  have  all  heard  of  him,  and 
first  met  him  in  connection  with  Lincoln  in  the 
"  McCormick-Manny  "  case  tried  in  the  Federal  Court 
at  Cincinnati  in  1855. 

We  remember  Stanton's  elbowing  Lincoln  out  of  the 
case  and  treating  him  in  such  form  that  Lincoln 
with  all  his  charity  characterized  it  to  Herndon  as 
"rude,"  " purposely  ignored,"  and  "roughly  handled 
by  that  man  Stanton." 

No  doubt  Stanton  never  again  expected  to  hear  from 
that  "long-armed  creature." 

In  the  meantime  Stanton  had  taken  front  rank 
among  American  lawyers,  and  had  been  employed  by 
the  government  in  very  important  cases.  Later  he 
became  attorney-general  for  the  spineless  administra 
tion  of  James  Buchanan,  and  furnished  what  little 
virility  that  administration  possessed  in  its  parting 
days. 

Cameron,  Lincoln's  first  secretary  of  war,  was  a 
bad  misfit.  His  administration  was  wholly  incom 
petent,  if  not  dishonest.  Not  that  Cameron  was 
dishonest,  but  many  of  his  subordinates  were  found 
to  be  so,  and  he  was  held  responsible  for  it. 


326  THE  VOICE   OF  LINCOLN 

Stanton  was  then  living  in  Washington.  He  had 
bitterly  criticised  Lincoln  and  his  administration.  He 
had  written  to  one  of  the  major-generals  of  the  army: 

"No  one  can  imagine  the  deplorable  condition  of 
this  city,  and  the  hazard  of  the  government,  who  did 
not  witness  the  weakness  and  panic  of  the  administra 
tion,  and  the  painful  imbecility  of  Lincoln. " 

To  ex-President  Buchanan  he  had  written: 

"A  strong  feeling  of  distrust  in  the  candor  and  sin 
cerity  of  Lincoln  personally  and  of  his  cabinet  has 
sprung  up.  If  they  had  been  merely  silent  and  secret, 
there  might  have  been  no  ground  of  complaint.  But 
assurances  are  said  to  have  been  given  and  declarations 
made  in  conflict  with  the  facts  now  transpiring,  in  re 
spect  to  the  South,  so  that  no  one  speaks  of  Lincoln  or 
any  member  of  his  cabinet  with  respect  or  regard. " 

McClellan,  in  earlier  days  a  stanch  friend  of  Stan- 
ton's,  says  that  Stanton  often  referred  to  President 
Lincoln  "as  a  low,  cunning  clown."  According  to  an 
other,  he  habitually  referred  to  Lincoln  as  "the  origi 
nal  gorilla,'7  and  even  said  that  "Du  Chaillu  was  a 
fool  to  wander  all  the  way  to  Africa  in  search  of  what 
he  could  so  easily  have  found  at  Springfield,  Illinois." 

Stanton  was  such  a  hard  hitter  and  hater,  that  his 
views  concerning  Lincoln  were  no  doubt  known  to  the 
President  at  the  time  of  Stanton's  selection  as  secre 
tary  of  war. 

Immediately  after  his  choice,  Stanton  wrote  to  a 
friend  as  follows: 

"I  hold  my  present  post  at  the  request  of  a  President 
who  knew  me  personally,  but  to  whom  I  had  not 
spoken  from  the  4th  of  March,  1861,  until  the  day  he 
handed  me  my  commission.  [January,  1862.]  I  knew 
that  everything  I  cherish  and  hold  dear  would  be  sacri- 


LINCOLN  THE   LEADER  327 

ficed  by  accepting  office.  But  I  thought  I  might  help 
to  save  the  country,  and  for  that  I  was  willing  to 
perish." 

Several  congressmen  once  called  on  Stanton  to  bring 
about  a  certain  army  appointment.  Stanton  declined 
to  make  it.  The  committee  urged  that  the  President 
was  strongly  in  favor  of  it.  Stanton  replied : 

"I  do  not  care  what  the  President  wants;  the  coun 
try  wants  the  very  best  it  can  get.  I  am  serving  the 
country  regardless  of  individuals." 

The  congressmen  returned  to  Lincoln  and  reported 
their  failure.  Whereupon  Lincoln  said: 

"  Gentlemen,  it  is  my  duty  to  submit.  I  cannot  add 
to  Mr.  Stanton's  troubles.  His  position  is  one  of  the 
most  difficult  in  the  world.  Thousands  in  the  army 
blame  him  because  they  are  not  promoted,  and  other 
thousands  out  of  the  army  blame  him  because  they 
are  not  appointed.  The  pressure  upon  him  is  im 
measurable  and  unending.  He  is  the  rock  on  the 
beach  of  our  national  ocean  against  which  the  breakers 
dash  and  roar,  dash  and  roar,  without  ceasing.  He 
fights  back  the  angry  waters  and  prevents  them  from 
undermining  and  overwhelming  the  land.  Gentlemen, 
I  do  not  see  how  he  survives — why  he  is  not  crushed 
and  torn  to  pieces.  Without  him  I  should  be  de 
stroyed.  He  performs  his  task  superhumanly.  Now 
do  not  mind  this  matter,  for  Mr.  Stanton  is  right  and 
I  cannot  wrongly  interfere  with  him." 

Numerous  instances  can  be  cited  in  which  Stanton 
had  his  way,  notwithstanding  the  well-known  wishes 
of  the  President  to  the  contrary.  These  were  chiefly 
matters  relating  to  appointments.  But  on  matters  of 
general  policy,  where  the  President  had  reached  a  fixed 
conclusion  as  to  any  matter,  it  was  the  President's  will 


328  THE  VOICE   OF  LINCOLN 

that  finally  prevailed.  In  some  cases  of  appointments, 
indeed,  the  President  was  peremptory,  as  is  shown  by 
the  following  brief  note  to  Secretary  Stanton: 

"EXECUTIVE  MANSION,  November  11, 1863. 

"DEAR  SIR:  I  personally  wish  Jacob  Freese,  of  New 
Jersey,  to  be  appointed  colonel  for  a  colored  regiment, 
and  this  regardless  of  whether  he  can  tell  the  exact 
shade  of  Julius  Caesar's  hair. 

"  Yours,  etc., 

"A.  LINCOLN." 

Every  member  of  examining  boards  in  civil  or  mili 
tary  life  should  read  and  regard  the  philosophy  of  this 
note.  If  so,  many  questions  would  be  omitted  from 
the  usual  tests.  This  note  is  Lincolnian  for  the  essen 
tials  of  things  and  the  directness  with  which  he  points 
his  English. 

Rothschild,  who  has  made  a  painstaking  analysis  of 
the  relation  between  Stanton  and  Lincoln,  says: 

"The  Secretary  of  War  never  successfully  opposed 
his  will  to  that  of  the  President  in  any  matter  concern 
ing  which  his  chief  had  reached  a  definite  purpose. 
Yet  Mr.  Lincoln  made  no  display  of  his  authority.  He 
even,  as  we  have  seen,  turned  it  over  at  times  to  Mr. 
Stanton;  or,  anxious  to  avoid  a  conflict,  exercised  it 
with  all  the  delicacy  of  which  he  was  capable.  Few, 
if  any,  of  the  world's  great  captains  could  have  man 
aged  this  truculent  lieutenant  with  so  little  friction. 
To  that  end,  concession,  persuasion,  and  diplomacy 
were  freely  intermingled.  When  they  failed,  however, 
the  President  asserted  his  mastery  with  a  vigor  before 
which  the  Secretary's  passion  and  obstinacy  had  to 
give  way." 


LINCOLN   THE   LEADER  329 

On  the  general  policies  of  the  War  Department  in  the 
administration,  Stanton  had  Lincoln's  confidence,  and 
Lincoln  likewise  enjoyed  the  confidence  of  his  great 
secretary  of  war.  They  were  one  as  to  their  views  on 
McClellan,  who  was  constantly  procrastinating  and 
complaining  about  the  insufficiency  of  his  army  to  meet 
the  enemy.  In  this  respect  Stanton  once  said  of  him, 
as  recorded  by  Nicolay  and  Hay: 

"If  he  had  a  million  men  he  would  swear  the  enemy 
had  two  million,  and  then  he  would  sit  down  in  the 
mud  and  yell  for  three." 

Indeed,  though  McClellan  and  Stanton  had  been 
close  personal  and  political  friends,  the  President 
stayed  with  McClellan  even  after  Stanton  was  ready 
to  abandon  him,  and  in  this  respect  he  had  overruled 
Stanton  as  to  the  recall  of  McClellan. 

During  one  of  the  many  discussions  with  reference 
to  jealousies  between  Cabinet  officers  and  generals  of 
the  army,  Lincoln  asserted  his  authority  in  the  follow 
ing  brief  address  to  his  Cabinet : 

"I  must  myself  be  the  judge  how  long  to  retain  in 
and  when  to  remove  any  of  you  from  his  position.  It 
would  greatly  pain  me  to  discover  any  of  you  endeav 
oring  to  procure  another's  removal,  or  in  any  way  to 
prejudice  him  before  the  public.  Such  endeavor  would 
be  a  wrong  to  me,  and,  much  worse,  a  wrong  to  the 
country.  My  wish  is  that  on  this  subject  no  remark 
be  made  nor  question  asked  by  any  of  you,  here  or  else 
where,  now  or  hereafter." 

This  language  needs  no  comment. 

Many  delegations  called  on  the  President  to  induce 
him  to  dismiss  from  his  Cabinet  Secretary  Stanton. 
To  one  of  these  friends  Lincoln  said : 

"Go  home,  my  friend,  and  read  attentively  the  tenth 


330  THE  VOICE   OF  LINCOLN 

verse  of  the  thirtieth  chapter  of  Proverbs :  'Accuse  not 
a  servant  unto  his  master,  lest  he  curse  thee  and  thou 

be  found  guilty/ ' 

One  of  the  great  historians  of  that  time  relates  Lin 
coln's  estimate  of  Stanton  to  one  of  these  anti-Stanton 
delegations  as  follows: 

"Mr.  Stanton  has  excellent  qualities,  and  he  has  his 
defects.  Folks  come  up  here  and  tell  me  that  there 
are  a  great  many  men  in  the  country  who  have  all 
Stanton's  excellent  qualities  without  his  defects.  All 
I  have  to  say  is,  I  haven't  met  'em !  I  don't  know 
'em!  I  wish  I  did!" 

After  Taney's  death  a  delegation  called  on  the  Presi 
dent  urging  the  appointing  of  Stanton  as  chief  justice. 
Mr.  Lincoln  said: 

"If  you  will  find  me  another  Secretary  of  War  like 
him  I  will  gladly  appoint  him." 

Later  Stanton  sent  his  resignation  to  Lincoln,  owing 
to  failing  health  under  the  great  strain  of  his  depart 
ment.  Lincoln,  in  the  presence  of  the  secretary,  tore 
up  the  resignation,  and  throwing  his  arms  about  Stan- 
ton  said: 

"Stanton,  you  have  been  a  good  friend  and  a  faith 
ful  public  servant;  and  it  is  not  for  you  to  say  when 
you  will  no  longer  be  needed  here." 

Stanton  himself  refers  to  this  instance  as  follows : 

"Stanton,  you  cannot  go.  Reconstruction  is  more 
difficult  and  dangerous  than  construction  or  destruc 
tion.  You  have  been  our  main  reliance;  you  must 
help  us  through  the  final  act.  The  bag  is  filled.  It 
must  be  tied,  and  tied  securely.  Some  knots  slip; 
yours  do  not.  You  understand  the  situation  better 
than  anybody  else,  and  it  is  my  wish  and  the  country's 
that  you  remain." 


LINCOLN  THE   LEADER  331 

Stanton  bowed  to  the  will  that  was  stronger  than 
his  own,  and  continued  his  duties. 

During  the  campaign  for  re-election  there  was  no 
influence  in  the  Cabinet  so  strongly  and  successfully 
exerted  in  the  President's  favor  as  that  by  Edwin  M. 
Stanton,  and  during  Lincoln's  latter  days  the  rela 
tions  between  them  were  as  cordial  and  confidential 
as  that  between  Lincoln  and  any  other  member  of  his 
Cabinet,  and  as  the  President  passed  away  by  the  bullet 
of  Booth,  the  great  Stanton,  with  tears  trickling  down 
his  cheeks,  pathetically  observed: 

"Now  he  belongs  to  the  ages." 

There  is  no  higher  test  of  leadership  than  ability 
to  lead  in  adversity  and  defeat. 

When  we  think  of  all  the  troubles,  defeats,  and  dis 
asters  that  befell  Abraham  Lincoln  and  his  administra 
tion  during  his  first  three  years  in  office,  we  wonder 
why  he  was  not  driven  to  desperation.  We  wonder 
what  great  faith  and  power  could  have  sustained  him 
in  his  loyalty  to  liberty  and  his  dedication  to  democracy. 
None  but  his  divine  dedication. 

With  Greeley's  cry  "On  to  Richmond"  before  we 
were  ready,  which  was  demonstrated  at  Bull  Run; 
with  Fremont's  precipitous  emancipation  policy  in 
Missouri,  which  had  to  be  reversed;  with  McClellan's 
procrastination  and  petty  complaints  of  executive 
interference;  with  the  Trent  affair,  in  which  Captain 
Wilkes  was  made  a  hero  and  the  national  demand,  for 
the  time,  was  to  uphold  his  action,  all  of  which  had  to 
be  reversed  by  the  President  and  Secretary  Seward; 
with  Cameron's  gross  mismanagement  in  the  Depart 
ment  of  War;  with  the  death  of  his  son  Willie;  with 
the  failure  of  his  policy  of  emancipation  with  com 
pensation;  with  the  defeats  at  Fredericksburg  and 


332  THE  VOICE   OF  LINCOLN 

Chancellorsville,  and  the  failure  of  McClellan  to  follow 
up  his  victory  at  Antietam  and  that  of  Meade  to 
follow  up  his  victory  at  Gettysburg;  with  stocks  fall 
ing,  and  troops  reduced  and  five  big  Northern  States 
repudiating  the  administration  in  their  elections,  we 
wonder  how  the  President  ever  survived  so  many 
failures,  so  many  defeats,  so  many  embarrassments. 
Through  it  all,  not  only  the  opposition  press,  but 
many  of  his  own  party,  charged  the  responsibility  for 
the  whole  series  of  political  troubles  and  military  dis 
asters  to  the  President  of  the  United  States. 

His  preservation  through  it  all  seems  well-nigh  prov 
idential.  Yet  all  this  while  he  was  searching  intently 
for  a  general,  and  finally  found  him  in  the  silent 
man,  U.  S.  Grant.  Thenceforth  victory  became  as 
frequent  as  defeat  had  been  frequent. 

Lincoln  was  always  laboring  to  right  the  wrongs  to 
others,  but  he  never  lowered  himself  to  the  point  of 
attempting  to  right  any  wrong  to  himself.  For  his 
own  justification  he  depended  upon  the  logic  of  time 
and  events. 

Public  leadership,  to  be  successful,  must  proceed 
from  an  intelligent  dedication  to  a  great  cause.  A 
complete  and  correct  view  of  that  cause  is  impossible 
if  it  shall  be  clouded  by  envyings,  jealousies,  personal 
likes  and  dislikes. 

The  question,  after  all,  is,  What  instruments  and 
individuals  will  best  promote  the  cause?  That  was 
always  the  crucial  question  with  Abraham  Lincoln. 

Emerson  has  aptly  expressed  this  trait  of  Lincoln 
as  follows: 

"His  heart  was  as  great  as  the  world,  but  there  was 
no  room  in  it  to  hold  the  memory  of  a  wrong." 


CHAPTER  XXII 
LINCOLN  ON  PEACE 

ABRAHAM  LINCOLN  was  a  man  of  peace — the  peace 
of  justice,  the  peace  of  honor,  the  peace  of  the  Union. 
He  not  only  believed  in  it,  he  would  fight  for  it,  he 
would  die  for  it. 

From  the  day  of  his  nomination  for  the  presidency, 
May  18,  1860,  until  the  day  of  his  inauguration,  March 
4,  1861,  he  made  no  public  statement  of  his  policies, 
either  before  the  election  or  afterward.  There  were 
not  even  any  front-porch  speeches  or  public  letters 
or  interviews.  This  has  been  referred  to  in  another 
chapter. 

The  nearest  approach  to  any  utterance  upon  the 
menacing  situation  then  presented  was  at  Philadelphia, 
at  Independence  Hall,  on  February  22,  1861,  when  he 
said: 

"It  was  not  there  mere  matter  of  separation  of  the 
colonies  from  the  motherland,  but  that  sentiment  in 
the  Declaration  of  Independence  which  gave  liberty, 
not  alone  to  the  people  of  this  country,  but  hope  to 
all  the  world,  for  all  future  time.  It  was  that  which 
gave  promise  that  in  due  time  the  weight  would  be 
lifted  from  the  shoulders  of  all  men  and  that  all  should 
have  an  equal  chance.  This  is  the  sentiment  embodied 
in  the  Declaration  of  Independence.  Now,  my  friends, 
can  this  country  be  saved  on  that  basis?  If  it  can,  I 
will  consider  myself  one  of  the  happiest  men  in  the 
world  if  I  can  help  to  save  it.  If  it  cannot  be  saved 
upon  that  principle,  it  will  be  truly  awful.  But  if  this 

333 


334  THE  VOICE   OF   LINCOLN 

country  cannot  be  saved  without  giving  up  that  prin 
ciple,  I  was  about  to  say  I  would  rather  be  assassinated 
on  this  spot  than  surrender  it.  Now,  in  my  view  of 
the  present  aspect  of  affairs,  there  is  no  need  of  blood 
shed  and  war.  There  is  no  necessity  for  it.  I  am  not 
in  favor  of  such  a  course;  and  I  may  say  in  advance 
that  there  will  be  no  bloodshed  unless  it  be  forced  upon 
the  Government.  The  Government  will  not  use  force, 
unless  force  is  used  against  it." 

Touching  this  matter  of  war,  Lincoln  said  near  the 
close  of  his  first  inaugural: 

"In  your  hands,  my  dissatisfied  fellow-countrymen, 
and  not  in  mine,  is  the  momentous  issue  of  civil  war. 
The  Government  will  not  assail  you.  You  can  have 
no  conflict,  without  being  yourselves  the  aggressors. 
You  have  no  oath  registered  in  Heaven  to  destroy 
the  Government  while  I  shall  have  the  most  solemn 
one  to  ' preserve,  protect,  and  defend'  it." 

The  President  and  his  Cabinet  had  been  divided 
upon  provisions  and  reinforcements  for  Fort  Sumter. 
Lincoln  was  for  the  policy,  Seward  and  Cameron 
against  it,  but  finally  the  relief  commission  sailed  out 
of  New  York,  April  9.  The  opening  gun  against  Fort 
Sumter  was  fired  at  4.30  A.  M.,  April  12.  Civil  War 
had  begun. 

On  April  15  he  issued  a  proclamation  calling  for 
75,000  militia  "to  favor,  facilitate  and  aid  this  effort 
to  maintain  the  honor,  the  integrity  and  the  existence 
of  our  national  union  and  the  perpetuity  of  popular 
government  and  to  redress  wrongs  already  long  enough 
endured." 

The  firing  on  Fort  Sumter  unified  the  South,  but 
in  an  even  greater  degree  it  unified  the  North  for 
the  defense  of  the  Union. 


LINCOLN   ON   PEACE  335 

In  1863  at  Gettysburg  Lincoln  avowed  his  purpose 
to  prosecute  the  war  to  a  successful  issue  in  the  use 
of  these  words: 

"It  is  for  us  who  live  rather  to  be  dedicated  here  to 
the  unfinished  work  which  they  who  fought  here  have 
thus  far  so  nobly  advanced.  It  is  rather  for  us  to  be 
here  dedicated  to  the  great  task  remaining  before  us 
that  from  these  honored  dead  we  take  increased  devo 
tion  to  that  cause  for  which  they  gave  the  last  full 
measure  of  devotion;  that  we  here  solemnly  resolve 
that  these  dead  shall  not  have  died  in  vain;  that  this 
Nation  under  God  shall  have  a  new  birth  of  freedom 
and  that  government  of  the  people  by  the  people  and 
for  the  people  shall  not  perish  from  the  earth." 

The  year  following,  1864,  he  avows  the  same  plain 
and  persistent  purpose. 

A  great  fair  was  being  held  at  Philadelphia,  June  16, 
1864,  for  the  benefit  of  the  United  States  Sanitary 
Commission,  one  of  the  great  charities  of  that  day  that 
was  doing  much  to  relieve  the  horrors  and  sufferings 
of  war.  At  this  fair  President  Lincoln  was  an  honored 
guest  and  made  a  brief  address,  in  which,  among  other 
things,  he  said: 

"They  [these  charities]  .  .  .  give  proof  that  the 
national  resources  are  not  at  all  exhausted,  and  that 
the  national  spirit  of  patriotism  is  even  firmer  and 
stronger  than  at  the  commencement  of  the  war. 

"It  is  a  pertinent  question  often  asked  in  the  mind 
privately,  and  from  one  to  the  other,  when  is  the  war 
to  end  ?  Surely  I  feel  as  deep  an  interest  in  this  ques 
tion  as  any  other  question;  but  I  do  not  wish  to  name 
a  day,  a  month,  or  year,  when  it  is  to  end.  I  do  not 
wish  to  run  any  risk  of  seeing  the  time  come  without 
our  being  ready  for  the  end,  for  fear  of  disappointment 


336  THE  VOICE  OF  LINCOLN 

because  the  time  had  come  and  not  the  end.  We  ac 
cepted  this  war  for  an  object,  a  worthy  object,  and  the  war 
will  end  when  that  object  is  attained.  Under  God,  I  hope 
it  will  never  end  until  that  time.  Speaking  of  the  pres 
ent  campaign,  General  Grant  is  reported  to  have  said 
'I  am  going  through  on  this  line  if  it  takes  all  summer.7 
This  war  has  taken  three  years;  it  was  begun  or  ac 
cepted  upon  the  line  of  restoring  the  national  authority 
over  the  whole  national  domain,  and  for  the  American 
people,  as  far  as  my  knowledge  enables  me  to  speak,  I 
say  we  are  going  through  on  this  line  if  it  takes  three 
years  more." 

At  the  Democratic  National  Convention  in  1864  a 
direct  and  distinct  demand  was  made  for  a  cessation 
of  hostilities.  Vallandigham  was  one  of  the  leading 
spirits  of  the  convention  and  made  the  platform. 
Upon  the  peace  platform  stood  a  war  candidate,  Gen 
eral  George  B.  McClellan.  McClellan  himself  repudi 
ated  the  platform  for  peace,  and  what  was  left  of  it 
was  soon  shot  to  death  by  General  Grant,  General 
Sherman,  and  Admiral  Farragut. 

Lincoln's  re-election  had  been  in  grave  doubt  during 
the  summer  of  1864.  He  himself  at  one  time  fully 
expected  defeat.  In  which  event  what  would  be,  and 
should  be,  the  leading  question  in  his  mind  ?  He  wrote 
it  down  on  a  slip  of  paper,  had  his  Cabinet  members  put 
their  names  upon  the  back  without  noting  its  con 
tents,  and  folding  it  up,  laid  it  away.  That  paper  read : 

"  EXECUTIVE  MANSION 
"  WASHINGTON,  August  23,  1864. 

"This  morning,  as  for  some  days  past,  it  seems  ex 
ceedingly  probable  that  this  administration  will  not 
be  re-elected.  Then  it  will  be  my  duty  to  so  co 
operate  with  the  President-elect  as  to  save  the  Union 


LINCOLN  ON  PEACE  337 

between  the  election  and  the  inauguration;  as  he  will 
have  secured  his  election  on  such  ground  that  he  can 
not  possibly  save  it  afterward. 

"A.  LINCOLN." 

The  November  election  brought  much  encourage 
ment  to  Lincoln  and  the  administration,  and  in  his 
message  to  Congress  in  December,  1864,  among  other 
things,  he  said: 

"On  careful  consideration  of  all  the  evidence  accessi 
ble,  it  seems  to  me  that  no  attempt  at  negotiation  with 
the  insurgent  leader  could  result  in  any  good.  He 
would  accept  nothing  short  of  severance  of  the  Union 
—precisely  what  we  will  not  and  cannot  give.  His  dec 
larations  to  this  effect  are  explicit  and  oft  repeated. 
He  does  not  attempt  to  deceive  us.  He  affords  us  no 
excuse  to  deceive  ourselves.  He  cannot  voluntarily 
re-accept  the  Union;  we  cannot  voluntarily  yield  it. 
Between  him  and  us  the  issue  is  distinct,  simple,  and 
inflexible." 

It  may  not  be  amiss  here  as  showing  the  unselfish 
patriotism  of  Abraham  Lincoln  infinitely  above  any 
personal  or  political  consideration  for  himself,  that 
during  the  summer  of  1864,  when  the  army  was  in  need 
of  more  troops,  he  issued  another  draft  that  aroused 
much  adverse  public  sentiment,  because  Grant  and 
Sherman  and  the  other  generals  needed  them,  though 
his  political  friends  all  advised  him  against  it  as  a  bad 
piece  of  politics  and  one  that  would  imperil  his  elec 
tion.  Nevertheless,  he  said: 

"We  must  lose  nothing  even  if  I  am  defeated.  I 
am  quite  willing  the  people  should  understand  the 
issue.  My  re-election  will  mean  that  the  rebellion  is 
to  be  crushed  by  force  of  arms." 

And  on  July  18  he  called  for  500,000  volunteers  for 


338  THE  VOICE  OF  LINCOLN 

one,  two,  and  three  years.  There  is  real  courage  and 
real  heroism  for  us. 

Read  again  that  part  of  his  second  inaugural  that 
applies  to  this  same  situation,  with  a  purpose  as  firm 
and  as  fearless  as  the  everlasting  rock: 

"  Fondly  do  we  hope,  fervently  do  we  pray,  that 
this  mighty  scourge  of  war  may  soon  pass  away.  Yet, 
if  God  wills  that  it  continue  until  all  the  wealth  piled 
by  the  bondman's  two  hundred  and  fifty  years  of  un 
requited  toil  shall  be  sunk,  and  until  every  drop  of 
blood  drawn  with  the  lash  shall  be  paid  with  another 
drawn  with  the  sword;  as  was  said  three  thousand 
years  ago,  so  still  it  must  be  said,  'The  judgments  of 
the  Lord  are  true  and  righteous  altogether.' 

"With  malice  toward  none,  with  charity  for  all, 
with  firmness  in  the  right,  as  God  gives  us  to  see 
the  right,  let  us  strive  on  to  finish  the  work  we  are 
in,  ...  to  do  all  which  may  achieve  and  cherish  a 
just  and  a  lasting  peace  among  ourselves  and  with  all 
nations." 

I  fear  some  of  us  remember  too  much  the  words, 
"With  malice  toward  none,  with  charity  for  all,"  and 
forget  Lincoln's  reference  to  "firmness  in  the  right,  as 
God  gives  us  to  see  the  right,  let  us  strive  on  to  finish 
the  work  we  are  in,  ...  to  do  all  which  may  achieve 
and  cherish  a  just  and  a  lasting  peace  among  ourselves 
and  with  all  nations." 

Lincoln  was  persistently  plagued  during  his  admin 
istration  by  the  pestiferous  and  perverse  peace  man, 
who  was  conspicuous,  not  only  among  his  political  op 
ponents,  but  even  among  his  professed  friends.  It 
would  be  impossible,  as  well  as  inadvisable,  in  a  work 
of  this  scope  to  consider  all  of  these  negotiations.  It 
will  be  sufficient  to  note  generally  that  Lincoln  had 


LINCOLN   ON   PEACE  339 

no  faith  in  any  of  them  after  the  bombardment  of 
Fort  Sumter. 

One  of  the  most  vociferous  and  troublesome  of  the 
peace  agitators  was  one  Vallandigham,  a  brilliant, 
capable,  and  perhaps  well-meaning  man,  but  intensely 
partisan.  In  1863  he  gave  Lincoln  and  the  Union 
cause  serious  trouble  and  embarrassment  by  his  public 
addresses  to  the  effect  that  the  war  was  "a  wicked, 
cruel  and  unnecessary  war'7;  "a  war  not  being  waged 
for  the  preservation  of  the  Union";  "a  war  for  the  pur 
pose  of  crushing  out  liberty  and  erecting  a  despotism." 

He  further  said  "that  if  the  administration  had  so 
wished  the  war  could  have  been  honorably  terminated 
months  ago";  that  " peace  might  have  been  honorably 
obtained  by  listening  to  the  proposed  intermediation 
of  France,"  etc. 

He  was  arrested  by  General  Burnside,  tried,  and 
found  guilty,  sentenced  to  "close  confinement  in  some 
fortress  of  the  United  States."  Finally  he  was  sent 
to  the  Confederate  lines  and  from  there  went  to  Canada. 
Later  he  ran  for  governor  of  Ohio  on  the  Democratic 
ticket,  and  was  overwhelmingly  beaten  by  General 
Brough  by  some  ninety  thousand. 

Numerous  protests  were  sent  to  President  Lincoln 
against  the  treatment  accorded  Vallandigham,  espe 
cially  by  "New  York  Democrats"  and  "Ohio  Demo 
crats."  Lincoln  answered  these  protests,  and  in  one 
of  his  replies  said: 

"  ...  he  who  dissuades  one  man  from  volunteer 
ing,  or  induces  one  soldier  to  desert,  weakens  the  Union 
cause  as  much  as  he  who  kills  a  Union  soldier  in  battle. 
Yet  this  dissuasion  or  inducement  may  be  so  con 
ducted  as  to  be  no  defined  crime  of  which  any  civil 
court  would  take  cognizance." 


340  THE  VOICE   OF  LINCOLN 

Among  Lincoln's  friends  there  are  two  instances, 
however,  that  are  worthy  of  special  mention.  Of  this 
peace  class  there  is  no  better  example  than  that  of 
Horace  Greeley.  Greeley  was  as  brilliant  and  well 
meaning  as  he  was  erratic  and  unpractical.  He  it  was 
who  at  the  beginning  of  the  war  was  in  favor  of  "  letting 
the  erring  sisters  go  in  peace. " 

In  July,  1864,  Greeley  received  a  letter  advising 
that  there  were  in  Canada  two  ambassadors  of  the 
rebel  government  with  full  power  to  negotiate  peace. 
Greeley  enclosed  this  letter  to  Lincoln,  commenting 
that  he  thought  the  matter  deserved  attention. 

He  also  wrote  Lincoln  in  that  connection,  saying: 

"I  venture  to  remind  you  that  our  bleeding,  bank 
rupt,  almost  dying  country,  longs  for  peace — shudders 
at  the  prospect  of  fresh  conscriptions,  of  further  whole 
sale  devastations,  and  of  new  rivers  of  human  blood; 
and  a  wide-spread  conviction  that  the  government 
and  its  supporters  are  not  anxious  for  peace,  and  do 
not  improve  proffered  opportunities  to  achieve  it,  is 
doing  great  harm  now,  and  is  morally  certain,  unless 
removed,  to  do  far  greater  in  the  approaching  elec 
tions." 

To  that  letter  the  President  replied  as  follows: 

"If  you  can  find  any  person,  anywhere,  professing 
to  have  any  proposition  of  Jefferson  Davis,  in  writing, 
embracing  the  restoration  of  the  Union  and  abandon 
ment  of  slavery,  whatever  else  it  embraces,  say  to  him 
that  he  may  come  to  me  with  you." 

Greeley  replied  to  the  President,  stating  in  substance 
that  he  had  information  upon  which  he  could  rely  that 
two  persons  had  been  duly  commissioned  and  empow 
ered  to  negotiate  for  peace  and  were  at  that  time  not 
far  from  Niagara  Falls.  Their  names  were  Clement 


LINCOLN   ON  PEACE  341 

C.  Clay,  of  Alabama,  and  Jacob  Thompson,  of  Missis 
sippi. 

Lincoln  later  wrote  Mr.  Greeley: 

"I  am  disappointed  that  you  have  not  already 
reached  here  with  those  commissioners.  If  they  would 
consent  to  come  on  being  shown  my  letter  to  you  of 
the  ninth  inst.,  show  that  and  this  to  them;  and,  if 
they  will  consent  to  come  on  the  terms  stated  in  the 
former,  bring  them.  I  not  only  intend  a  sincere  effort 
for  peace,  but  I  intend  that  you  shall  be  a  personal 
witness  that  it  is  made." 

Lincoln  had  no  confidence  in  the  commissioners, 
or  their  authority,  but  he  resolved  to  throw  the  re 
sponsibility  for  it  upon  Greeley  by  appointing  him  as 
a  commissioner  to  interview  and  negotiate  with  the 
commissioners  from  the  South. 

Lincoln  sent  Major  Hay  to  Niagara  with  the  fol 
lowing  letter: 

"EXECUTIVE  MANSION, 
"WASHINGTON,  July  18,   1864. 
"To  Whom  It  May  Concern: 

"Any  proposition  which  embraces  the  restoration 
of  peace,  the  integrity  of  the  whole  Union,  and  the 
abandonment  of  slavery,  and  which  comes  by  and 
with  an  authority  that  can  control  the  armies  now  at 
war  against  the  United  States,  will  be  received  and 
considered  by  the  Executive  government  of  the  United 
States,  and  will  be  met  on  liberal  terms  on  substantial 
and  collateral  points;  and  the  bearer  or  bearers  thereof 
shall  have  safe-conduct  both  ways. 

" ABRAHAM  LINCOLN." 

To  a  friend  afterward  Lincoln  said  his  appointment 
of  Greeley  arose  out  of  the  fact  that  he  had  no  con- 


342  THE  VOICE   OF  LINCOLN 

fidence  whatsoever  either  in  the  authority  of  the 
Southern  commissioners  or  in  their  disposition  for 
peace,  and  he  proposed  to  appoint  Greeley  and  let 
him  "  crack  that  nut." 

Later  on  Francis  P.  Blair,  Jr.,  was  infected  with 
the  same  peace  germ  and  sought  to  enlist  Lincoln  to 
another  conference  with  three  commissioners  from  the 
South — Alexander  H.  Stephens,  R.  M.  T.  Hunter,  and 
John  A.  Campbell — all  members  of  the  Confederate 
Government.  The  result  of  Blair's  mediation  was  that 
Secretary  Seward  received  from  Lincoln  authority 
to  meet  said  commissioners  from  the  Confederate 
Government,  with  these  specific  instructions  submitted 
by  President  Lincoln : 

"1.  The  restoration  of  the  national  authority 
throughout  all  the  States. 

"2.  No  receding  by  the  executive  of  the  United 
States  on  the  slavery  question  from  the  position  as 
sumed  thereon  in  the  late  annual  message  to  Congress, 
and  in  preceding  documents. 

"3.  No  cessation  of  hostilities  short  of  an  end  of 
the  war  and  the  disbanding  of  all  forces  hostile  to  the 
government." 

Generous  as  Lincoln  could  be  and  generous  as  he 
generally  was  to  a  foe,  he  realized  that  the  issue  here 
was  inflexible  and  was  not  a  subject  for  negotiation 
between  the  North  and  South,  except  upon  the  basis 
that  he  above  outlined.  Some  things  cannot  be  com 
promised. 

During  the  latter  months  of  Lincoln's  life  he  had 
given  much  attention  to  the  subject  of  reconstruction 
in  the  South.  He  anticipated  the  victories  of  Grant 
and  Sherman  that  must  soon  end  the  war.  He  fore 
saw  some  of  the  divisions  among  the  Northern  states- 


LINCOLN   ON  PEACE  343 

men  as  to  the  policies  that  would  be  advocated  for 
reconstruction.  One  of  the  great  questions  footballed 
through  Congress  was  this,  Are  the  States  that  are 
members  of  the  Confederate  Government  in  the  Union 
or  out  of  the  Union? 

Lincoln  handled  this  question  in  his  own  inimit 
able  way  in  the  following  pointed  and  pertinent  lan 
guage: 

"We  all  agree,  that  the  seceded  States,  so  called, 
are  out  of  their  proper  practical  relation  with  the  Union, 
and  that  the  sole  object  of  the  government,  civil  and 
military,  in  regard  to  those  States  is  to  again  get  them 
into  the  proper  practical  relation.  I  believe  that  it  is 
not  only  possible,  but  in  fact  easier,  to  do  this  without 
deciding  or  even  considering  whether  these  States  have 
ever  been  out  of  the  Union,  than  with  it.  Finding 
themselves  safely  at  home,  it  would  be  utterly  imma 
terial  whether  they  had  ever  been  abroad.  Let  us  all 
join  in  doing  the  acts  necessary  to  restoring  the  proper 
practical  relations  between  these  States  and  the  Union, 
and  each  forever  after  innocently  indulge  his  own 
opinion  whether  in  doing  the  acts  he  brought  the  States 
from  without  into  the  Union,  or  only  gave  them  proper 
assistance,  they  never  having  been  out  of  it.'7 

Lincoln  as  a  lawyer  and  logician  never  had  any 
patience  with  distinguishing  between  tweedledee  and 
tweedledum.  He  always  cut  the  "Gordian  knot77  of 
technicality  and  got  into  the  heart  and  substance  of 
things.  He  did  that  as  a  lawyer,  he  did  it  more  as  a 
statesman. 

At  the  bottom  of  the  reconstruction  policy  was  the 
13th  Amendment  to  the  Constitution,  that  was  to  for 
ever  rivet  the  rights  of  freemen  to  the  late  slave.  It 
was  to  put  the  military  emancipation  proclamation 


344  THE  VOICE   OF  LINCOLN 

into  our  civil  constitution.     But  Booth's  bullet  did  its 
deadly  work  on  April  14,  1865. 

The  soul  of  the  broad-gauged,  far-sighted,  generous, 
merciful  Lincoln  took  its  flight  to  another  country, 
and  at  the  very  hour  the  South,  no  less  than  the  North, . 
needed  him  most. 

The  patient,  considerate,  and  troubled  administra 
tion  of  Abraham  Lincoln,  free  from  all  hate,  malice,  or 
revenge,  was  over.  Radicalism  and  rancor  were  now 
to  design  and  direct  the  nation's  policies  of  recon 
structing  the  South.  What  an  awful  story  of  trouble 
and  terror,  crime  and  crimination  followed  in  the  wake 
of  Andrew  Johnson,  his  successor ! 

Surely  it  could  never  have  occurred  with  Lincoln's 
wise  and  humane  personality  in  command  at  Wash 
ington.  He  indicated  enough  of  his  plans  for  the 
South  before  his  martyrdom  to  assure  us  of  the  most 
benevolent,  generous,  and  considerate  policies  for  the 
restoration  and  reconstruction  of  the  South.  The  reign 
of  terror,  the  carpetbag  government,  the  Kuklux  Klan 
and  all  were  the  natural  and  almost  necessary  result  of 
Lincoln's  assassination. 


CHAPTER  XXIII 
LINCOLN  THE  MOST  UNSELFISH  MAN 

TIME  would  fail  me  to  detail  the  many  instances  re 
corded  in  the  various  biographies  of  Lincoln  exhibiting 
almost  divine  unselfishness;  from  his  kindness  to  the 
returning  soldier  in  Kentucky,  to  his  companions  and 
neighbors  at  Gentry ville  in  Indiana,  toward  the  "  plain 
folk"  of  New  Salem,  Illinois,  his  professional  conduct 
at  Springfield  and  his  official  life  at  Washington.  But 
some  of  these  incidents  are  so  strikingly  significant,  so 
exceptional  and  surprising  that  they  should  be  given 
more  than  mere  mention  in  surveying  the  unselfish 
character  and  service  of  his  magnanimous  life. 

Few  great  historical  characters  who  were  possessed 
of  the  ambition  of  Abraham  Lincoln  were  so  utterly 
free  from  envy  and  jealousy  of  their  fellows.  Though 
the  leader  of  the  Whig  party  in  Illinois  as  early  as 
1840,  when  he  was  its  unanimous  candidate  for  speaker 
in  the  general  assembly,  his  defeat  for  nomination  for 
Congress  in  1842  by  John  J.  Hardin  did  not  sour  him. 

He  came  back  manfully  in  1844,  when  he  was  again 
defeated  by  Edward  M.  Baker.  He  loyally  and  en 
thusiastically  supported  Baker  and  stumped  the  dis 
trict  for  him. 

In  1846  he  was  again  a  candidate  and  was  this  time 
nominated.  During  his  term  in  Congress  he  received  a 
letter  from  his  old-time  partner,  Herndon,  complaining 
that  the  young  men  of  Illinois  were  being  rudely  and 
inconsiderately  pushed  aside  by  the  older  men,  whom 

345 


346  THE  VOICE   OF  LINCOLN 

Herndon  characterized  as  "the  old  fossils  in  the  party 
who  were  constantly  holding  the  young  man  back." 
Mr.  Lincoln  administered  a  very  gentle  and  gracious 
rebuke  in  the  following  letter;  under  date  of  July  10, 
1848,  he  wrote: 

"DEAR  WILLIAM: 

"Your  letter  covering  the  newspaper  slips  was  re 
ceived  last  night.  The  subject  of  that  letter  is  ex 
ceedingly  painful  to  me,  and  I  cannot  but  think  there 
is  some  mistake  in  your  impression  of  the  motives  of 
the  old  men.  I  suppose  I  am  now  one  of  the  old  men; 
and  I  declare  on  my  veracity,  which  I  think  is  good 
with  you,  that  nothing  could  afford  me  more  satisfac 
tion  than  to  learn  that  you  and  others  of  my  young 
friends  at  home  were  doing  battle  in  the  contest  and 
endearing  themselves  to  the  people  and  taking  a  stand 
far  above  any  I  have  ever  been  able  to  reach  in  their 
admiration.  I  cannot  conceive  that  other  men  feel 
differently.  Of  course  I  cannot  demonstrate  what  I 
say;  but  I  was  young  once,  and  I  am  sure  I  was  never 
ungenerously  thrust  back.  I  hardly  know  what  to 
say.  The  way  for  a  young  man  to  rise  is  to  improve 
himself  every  way  he  can,  never  suspecting  that  any 
body  wishes  to  hinder  him.  Allow  me  to  assure  you 
that  suspicion  and  jealousy  never  did  help  any  man  in 
any  situation."  .  .  . 

The  petty  disappointments  and  personal  insults  that 
come  and  go  in  one's  personal  and  public  life  were  either 
ignored  or  forgotten  by  him.  He  always  kept  his  eye 
on  the  "central  idea"  rather  than  some  personal  griev 
ance  or  insult. 

Lincoln  was  not  only  not  selfish,  he  was  constitu- 


LINCOLN  THE   MOST  UNSELFISH  MAN     347 

tionally  unselfish  in  the  superlative  degree.  Nowhere 
was  this  better  demonstrated  than  in  connection  with 
his  Cabinet.  Not  a  man  in  it  was  chosen  because  of 
his  personal  loyalty  and  ability  to  advance  the  political 
fortunes  of  Abraham  Lincoln.  Upon  the  contrary,  the 
primary  and  paramount  idea  throughout  his  choice  of 
Cabinet  members  was  the  crystallization  of  public  sen 
timent  for  the  Union. 

This  " frontier  lawyer"  of  Duff  Armstrong  and  the 
Widow  Wright,  of  the  Illinois  prairies,  as  he  was  known 
in  the  East,  had  now  become  chief  counsel  for  the 
American  people  in  the  great  governmental  court  at 
Washington,  and  in  this  case  no  Stanton  would  elbow 
him  out  of  the  great  cause  to  which  he  had  dedicated 
his  life. 

He  not  only  continued  as  counsel,  but  as  chief  coun 
sel,  and  his  Cabinet  ministers  with  one  glaring  and  un 
pardonable  exception,  recognized  who  the  chief  counsel 
was. 

All  this  came  about,  not  by  any  selfish  assertion  of 
power,  not  by  any  personal  vanity,  but  by  reason  of 
superiority  of  sense,  his  judgment,  his  foresight,  his 
fairness  and  firmness,  his  loyalty  to  liberty  and  his 
devotion  to  democracy. 

We  see  him  again  patiently  reading  Seward's  note, 
"Some  Thoughts  for  the  Consideration  of  the  Presi 
dent,"  with  all  its  haughtiness,  its  ungracious  insults, 
and  we  see  again  the  President's  fair,  firm,  and  conclu 
sive  answer. 

No  one  will  ever  know  how  much  his  personal  pride, 
during  the  first  year  or  two  of  Seward's  service,  was 
hurt  and  cut  to  the  quick.  But  he  ignored  it  all,  and 
later  these  two  were  the  most  faithful  friends  in  one 
common  cause,  Union  and  Liberty. 


348  THE  VOICE  OF  LINCOLN 

No  one  can  ever  know  the  continuous,  intolerable, 
petty,  and  paltry  faultfinding  of  Chase,  his  treason 
able  undermining  of  the  President's  political  loyalty 
and  fortunes,  and  his  continual  quarrelling  with  other 
members  of  the  Cabinet,  and  how  long  thereafter  the 
President  kept  him,  feeling  that  while  he  was  disloyal 
to  A.  Lincoln,  he  was  rendering  efficient  service  to 
Uncle  Sam.  Then  finally,  when  it  was  discovered  that 
he  was  tunnelling  under  Seward  through  the  United 
States  Senate,  and  also  under  Lincoln  and  his  policies, 
it  was  inevitable  that  the  President  should  accept 
Chase's  third  resignation.  Chase  had  literally  forced 
himself  out  of  the  Cabinet. 

And  then  again  upon  Taney's  death,  when  a  new 
chief  justice  had  to  be  chosen,  how  easy  it  would 
have  been  for  Mr.  Lincoln  to  have  appointed  some  one 
experienced  and  qualified  for  that  honorable  place  in 
our  national  jurisprudence,  with  no  thought  at  all  of 
Chase,  and  when  some  of  his  friends  ventured  to  urge 
his  name,  which  in  view  of  the  relations  between  the 
secretary  of  the  treasury  and  the  President,  would 
seem  the  sheerest  effrontery,  how  easy  it  was  for  Lin 
coln  to  say:  "Now  is  my  chance  to  humiliate  him,  to 
get  even  with  him." 

Lincoln's  appointment  of  Chase  under  the  circum 
stances  of  their  past  relationship,  and  Chase's  treat 
ment  of  him,  as  shown  by  the  latter's  own  diary,  as 
well  as  the  many  disclosures  of  the  biographies  of  both 
of  them,  demonstrate  a  magnanimity  upon  the  part 
of  Abraham  Lincoln  so  rare  and  so  rich  in  human  kind 
ness  that  it  almost  stamps  him  as  divine.  Could 
you  have  done  it  ?  Would  you  have  done  it  ?  Would 
any  other  President  have  done  it  that  you  ever  knew  of  ? 

And  then  to  Stanton's  conduct,   with  all  its  dis- 


LINCOLN  THE   MOST  UNSELFISH  MAN     349 

courtesies,  its  insults  in  the  Federal  Court  at  Cincin 
nati,  in  1855,  as  noted  in  previous  chapters.  To  have 
overlooked  this  "  prof essional  outrage, "  this  "  personal 
insult,"  to  have  laid  aside  his  bitterest  criticisms,  given 
wide  publicity  in  Washington  and  the  country,  in 
which  he  characterized  Lincoln's  administration  as 
"political  imbecility,"  to  have  taken  this  man  Stanton 
into  his  official  family  in  charge  of  the  great  office 
of  secretary  of  war,  is  surely  too  much  to  expect  of 
human  flesh.  And  yet  Lincoln  did  it.  Could  you 
have  done  it?  Would  you  have  done  it?  Has  any 
other  President  ever  done  it? 

A  reasonable  amount  of  criticism  is  a  good  thing  for 
a  public  officer.  It  keeps  reminding  him  of  the  fact 
that  after  all  he  is  only  a  public  servant,  a  public  agent, 
a  public  representative.  He  admits  it  the  day  before 
election.  He  too  often  forgets  it  the  day  after.  Such 
criticism,  as  a  rule,  only  makes  big  men  bigger  and  lit 
tle  men  littler,  both  eminently  desirable  results  in  the 
evolution  of  government. 

"With  malice  toward  none  and  charity  for  all" — 
this  literally  personified  Abraham  Lincoln  throughout 
his  life,  and  this  spirit  of  the  man  from  Illinois  still 
reminds  us  that  his  "soul  goes  marching  on,"  and 
that  it  is  receiving  a  new  life  and  a  new  loyalty  in 
his  own  fair  country — Our  America. 


CHAPTER   XXIV 
LINCOLN'S  MISCELLANEOUS  VIEWS 

RELIGION 

From  an  interview  between  Mr.  Newton  Bateman,  superintendent  of 
public  instruction  of  Illinois,  and  Lincoln,  in  1860,  touching  a 
poll-book  of  Springfield,  particularly  relating  to  the  ministers  of 
that  city. 

"HERE  are  twenty- three  ministers  of  different  de 
nominations,  and  all  of  them  are  against  me  but  three; 
and  here  are  a  great  many  prominent  members  of  the 
churches,  a  very  large  majority  of  whom  are  against  me. 
Mr.  Bateman,  I  am  not  a  Christian — God  knows  I 
would  be  one — but  I  have  carefully  read  the  Bible, 
and  I  do  not  so  understand  this  book";  (and  he  drew 
from  his  bosom  a  pocket  New  Testament).  "These 
men  well  know,"  he  continued,  "that  I  am  for  free 
dom  in  the  territories,  freedom  everywhere  as  far  as 
the  Constitution  and  laws  will  permit,  and  that  my 
opponents  are  for  slavery.  They  know  this,  and  yet, 
with  this  book  in  their  hands,  in  the  light  of  which 
human  bondage  cannot  live  a  moment,  they  are  going 
to  vote  against  me.  I  do  not  understand  it  at  all." 

Here  Mr.  Lincoln  paused — paused  for  long  minutes, 
his  features  surcharged  with  emotion.  Then  he  rose 
and  walked  up  and  down  the  room  in  the  effort  to  re 
tain  or  regain  his  self-possession.  Stopping  at  last, 
he  said,  with  a  trembling  voice  and  his  cheeks  wet 
with  tears: 

"I  know  there  is  a  God,  and  that  He  hates  injustice 
and  slavery.  I  see  the  storm  coming,  and  I  know  that 
His  hand  is  in  it.  If  He  has  a  place  and  work  for  me 

350 


LINCOLN'S  MISCELLANEOUS  VIEWS    351 

— and  I  think  He  has — I  believe  I  am  ready.  I  am 
nothing,  but  truth  is  everything.  I  know  I  am  right 
because  I  know  that  liberty  is  right,  for  Christ  teaches 
it,  and  Christ  is  God.  I  have  told  them  that  a  house 
divided  against  itself  cannot  stand,  and  Christ  and 
reason  say  the  same;  and  they  will  find  it  so.  Douglas 
don't  care  whether  slavery  is  voted  up  or  voted  down, 
but  God  cares,  and  humanity  cares,  and  I  care;  and 
with  God's  help  I  shall  not  fail.  I  may  not  see  the 
end;  but  it  will  come,  and  I  shall  be  vindicated;  and 
these  men  will  find  that  they  have  not  read  their 
Bibles  aright." 

Much  of  this  was  uttered  as  if  he  were  speaking  to 
himself,  and  with  a  sad  and  earnest  solemnity  of  manner 
impossible  to  be  described.  After  a  pause,  he  resumed : 
"  Doesn't  it  appear  strange  that  men  can  ignore  the 
moral  aspects  of  this  contest?  A  revelation  could 
not  make  it  plainer  to  me  that  slavery  or  the  govern 
ment  must  be  destroyed.  The  future  would  be  some 
thing  awful,  as  I  look  at  it,  but  for  this  rock  on  which 
I  stand"  (alluding  to  the  Testament  which  he  still 
held  in  his  hand),  " especially  with  the  knowledge  of 
how  these  ministers  are  going  to  vote.  It  seems  as 
if  God  had  borne  with  this  thing  (slavery)  until  the 
very  teachers  of  religion  have  come  to  defend  it  from 
the  Bible,  and  to  claim  for  it  a  divine  character  and 
sanction;  and  now  the  cup  of  iniquity  is  full,  and  the 
vials  of  wrath  will  be  poured  out." 

PERSUADING   MEN 

From  a  temperance  speech  delivered  before  the  Springfield  Washing- 
tonian  Temperance  Society,  February  22,  1842. 

"When  the  conduct  of  men  is  designed  to  be  in 
fluenced,  persuasion,  kind,  unassuming  persuasion, 


352  THE  VOICE  OF   LINCOLN 

should  ever  be  adopted.  It  is  an  old  and  true  maxim 
'that  a  drop  of  honey  catches  more  flies  than  a  gallon 
of  gall/  So  with  men.  If  you  would  win  a  man  to 
your  cause,  first  convince  him  that  you  are  his  sincere 
friend.  Therein  is  a  drop  of  honey  that  catches  his 
heart,  which,  say  what  he  will,  is  the  great  highroad 
to  his  reason,  and  which,  when  once  gained,  you  will 
find  but  little  trouble  in  convincing  his  judgment  of 
the  justice  of  your  cause,  if  indeed  that  cause  really 
be  a  just  one.  On  the  contrary,  assume  to  dictate  to 
his  judgment,  or  to  command  his  action,  or  to  mark 
him  as  one  to  be  shunned  and  despised,  and  he  will 
retreat  within  himself,  close  all  the  avenues  to  his  head 
and  his  heart;  and  though  your  cause  be  naked  truth 
itself,  transformed  to  the  heaviest  lance,  harder  than 
steel,  and  sharper  than  steel  can  be  made,  and  though 
you  throw  it  with  more  than  herculean  force  and  pre 
cision,  you  shall  be  no  more  able  to  pierce  him  than 
to  penetrate  the  hard  shell  of  a  tortoise  with  a  rye  straw. 
Such  is  man,  and  so  must  he  be  understood  by  those 
who  would  lead  him,  even  to  his  own  best  interests. 

"Few  can  be  induced  to  labor  exclusively  for  pos 
terity;  and  none  will  do  it  enthusiastically.  Posterity 
has  done  nothing  for  us;  and  theorize  on  it  as  we  may, 
practically  we  shall  do  very  little  for  it,  unless  we  are 
made  to  think  we  are  at  the  same  time  doing  some 
thing  for  ourselves." 

TEMPERANCE 
From  the  same  temperance  address. 

"Turn  now  to  the  temperance  revolution.  In  it 
we  shall  find  a  stronger  bondage  broken,  a  viler  slavery 
manumitted,  a  greater  tyrant  deposed;  in  it,  more 


LINCOLN'S   MISCELLANEOUS   VIEWS    353 

of  want  supplied,  more  disease  healed,  more  sorrow 
assuaged.  By  it  no  orphans  starving,  no  widows  weep 
ing.  By  it,  none  wounded  in  feeling,  none  injured  in 
interest;  even  the  dram-maker  and  dram-seller  will 
have  glided  into  other  occupations  so  gradually  as 
never  to  have  felt  the  change,  and  will  stand  ready 
to  join  all  others  in  the  universal  song  of  gladness. 
And  what  a  noble  ally  this  to  the  cause  of  political 
freedom,  with  such  an  aid  its  march  cannot  fail  to  be 
on  and  on,  till  every  son  of  earth  shall  drink  in  rich  fru 
ition  the  sorrow-quenching  draughts  of  perfect  liberty. 
Happy  day  when — all  appetites  controlled,  all  poisons 
subdued,  all  matter  subjected — mind,  all  conquering 
mind,  shall  live  and  move,  the  monarch  of  the  world. 
Glorious  consummation !  Hail,  fall  of  fury !  Reign 
of  reason,  all  hail ! 

"And  when  the  victory  shall  be  complete, — when 
there  shall  be  neither  a  slave  nor  a  drunkard  on  the 
earth, — how  proud  the  title  of  that  land  which  may 
truly  claim  to  be  the  birthplace  and  the  cradle  of  both 
those  revolutions  that  shall  have  ended  in  that  vic 
tory.  How  nobly  distinguished  that  people  who  shall 
have  planted  and  nurtured  to  maturity  both  the  polit 
ical  and  moral  freedom  of  their  species." 

LABOR 

From  the  President's   Message  of  December  3,  1861. 

"It  is  not  needed  nor  fitting  here  that  a  general  ar 
gument  should  be  made  in  favor  of  popular  institu 
tions;  but  there  is  one  point,  with  its  connections, 
not  so  hackneyed  as  most  others,  to  which  I  ask  a 
brief  attention.  It  is  the  effort  to  place  capital  on  an 
equal  footing  with,  if  not  above,  labor,  in  the  struc 
ture  of  government.  It  is  assumed  that  labor  is  avail- 


354  THE  VOICE  OF  LINCOLN 

able  only  in  connection  with  capital;  that  nobody 
labors  unless  somebody  else,  owning  capital,  somehow 
by  the  use  of  it  induces  him  to  labor.  This  assumed, 
it  is  next  considered  whether  it  is  best  that  capital 
shall  hire  laborers,  and  thus  induce  them  to  work  by 
their  own  consent,  or  buy  them,  and  drive  them  to 
it  without  their  consent.  Having  proceeded  thus  far, 
it  is  naturally  concluded  that  all  laborers  are  either 
hired  laborers  or  what  we  call  slaves.  And,  further, 
it  is  assumed  that  whoever  is  once  a  hired  laborer  is 
fixed  in  that  condition  for  life. 

"Now,  there  is  no  such  relation  between  capital 
and  labor  as  assumed,  nor  is  there  any  such  thing  as 
a  free  man  being  fixed  for  life  in  the  condition  of  a 
hired  laborer.  Both  these  assumptions  are  false,  and 
all  inferences  from  them  are  groundless. 

"Labor  is  prior  to,  and  independent  of,  capital. 
Capital  is  only  the  fruit  of  labor,  and  could  never  have 
existed  if  labor  had  not  first  existed.  Labor  is  the 
superior  of  capital,  and  deserves  much  the  higher  con 
sideration.  Capital  has  its  rights,  which  are  as  worthy 
of  protection  as  any  other  rights.  Nor  is  it  denied 
that  there  is,  and  probably  always  will  be,  a  relation 
between  labor  and  capital  producing  mutual  benefits. 
The  error  is  in  assuming  that  the  whole  of  labor  of 
the  community  exists  within  that  relation.  A  few  men 
own  capital,  and  that  few  avoid  labor  themselves,  and 
with  their  capital  hire  or  buy  another  few  to  labor  for 
them.  A  large  majority  belong  to  neither  class — 
neither  work  for  others  nor  have  others  working  for 
them.  In  most  of  the  Southern  States  a  majority  of 
the  whole  people,  of  all  colors  are  neither  slaves  nor 
masters;  while  in  the  Northern  a  large  majority  are 
neither  hirers  nor  hired.  Men  with  their  families — 
wives,  sons,  and  daughters— work  for  themselves,  on 


LINCOLN'S  MISCELLANEOUS  VIEWS    355 

their  farms,  in  their  houses,  and  in  their  shops  taking 
the  whole  product  to  themselves,  and  asking  no  favors 
of  capital  on  the  one  hand,  nor  of  hired  laborers  or 
slaves  on  the  other.  It  is  not  forgotten  that  a  con 
siderable  number  of  persons  mingle  then:  own  labor 
with  capital — that  is,  they  labor  with  their  own  hands 
and  also  buy  or  hire  others  to  labor  for  them;  but 
this  is  only  a  mixed  and  not  a  distinct  class.  No  prin 
ciple  stated  is  disturbed  by  the  existence  of  this  mixed 
class. 

"  Again,  as  has  already  been  said,  there  is  not,  of 
necessity,  any  such  thing  as  the  free  hired  laborer 
being  fixed  to  that  condition  for  life.  Many  indepen 
dent  men  everywhere  in  these  States,  a  few  years  back 
in  their  lives,  were  hired  laborers.  The  prudent,  penni 
less  beginner  in  the  world  labors  for  wages  awhile, 
saves  a  surplus  with  which  to  buy  tools  or  land  for 
himself,  then  labors  on  his  own  account  another  while, 
and  at  length  hires  another  new  beginner  to  help  him. 
This  is  the  just  and  generous  and  prosperous  system 
which  opens  the  way  to  all — gives  hope  to  all,  and 
consequent  energy  and  progress  and  improvement  of 
condition  to  all.  No  men  living  are  more  worthy  to 
be  trusted  than  those  who  toil  up  from  poverty — none 
less  inclined  to  take  or  touch  aught  which  they  have 
not  honestly  earned.  Let  them  beware  of  surrender 
ing  a  political  power  which  they  already  possess,  and 
which,  if  surrendered,  will  surely  be  used  to  close  the 
door  of  advancement  against  such  as  they,  and  to  fix 
new  disabilities  and  burdens  upon  them,  till  all  of  lib 
erty  shall  be  lost." 

From  the  President's  Message  to  Congress,  July  4,  1861. 

"This  is  essentially  a  people's  contest.  On  the  side 
of  the  Union  it  is  a  struggle  for  maintaining  in  the 


356  THE  VOICE   OF   LINCOLN 

world  that  form  and  substance  of  government  whose 
leading  object  is  to  elevate  the  condition  of  men — to 
lift  artificial  weights  from  all  shoulders;  to  clear  the 
paths  of  laudable  pursuit  for  all;  to  afford  all  an  un 
fettered  start  and  a  fair  chance  in  the  race  of  life. 
Yielding  to  partial  and  temporary  departures,  from 
necessity,  this  is  the  leading  object  of  the  government 
for  whose  existence  we  contend. 

"I  am  most  happy  to  believe  that  the  plain  people 
understand  and  appreciate  this.  It  is  worthy  of  note 
that  while  in  this,  the  government's  hour  of  trial,  large 
numbers  of  those  in  the  army  and  navy  who  have  been 
favored  with  the  officers  have  resigned  and  proved 
false  to  the  hand  which  had  pampered  them,  not  one 
common  soldier  or  common  sailor  is  known  to  have 
deserted  his  flag." 

AGRICULTURE 
From  an  address  before  an  agricultural  society,   September  30,  1859. 

"I  know  nothing  so  pleasant  to  the  mind  as  the  dis 
covery  of  anything  that  is  at  once  new  and  valuable — 
nothing  that  so  lightens  and  sweetens  toil  as  the  hope 
ful  pursuit  of  such  discovery.  And  how  vast  and  how 
varied  a  field  is  agriculture  for  such  discovery !  The 
mind  already  trained  to  thought  in  the  country  school, 
or  higher  school,  cannot  fail  to  find  there  an  exhaust- 
less  source  of  enjoyment.  Every  blade  of  grass  is  a 
study;  and  to  produce  two  where  there  was  but  one 
is  both  a  profit  and  a  pleasure.  And  not  grass  alone, 
but  soils,  seeds,  and  seasons — hedges,  ditches,  and 
fences — draining,  droughts,  and  irrigation — plowing, 
hoeing,  and  harrowing — reaping,  mowing,  and  thresh 
ing — saving  crops,  pests  of  crops,  diseases  of  crops,  and 


LINCOLN'S  MISCELLANEOUS  VIEWS    357 

what  will  prevent  or  cure  them — implements,  utensils, 
and  machines,  their  relative  merits,  and  how  to  im 
prove  them — hogs,  horses,  and  cattle — sheep,  goats, 
and  poultry — trees,  shrubs,  fruits,  plants  and  flowers— 
the  thousand  things  of  which  these  are  specimens- 
each  a  world  of  study  within  itself. 

"In  all  this,  book-learning  is  available.  A  capacity 
and  taste  for  reading  gives  access  to  whatever  has  al 
ready  been  discovered  by  others.  It  is  the  key,  or 
one  of  the  keys,  to  the  already  solved  problems.  And 
not  only  so:  it  gives  a  relish  and  facility  for  success 
fully  pursuing  the  unsolved  ones.  The  rudiments  of 
science  are  available,  highly  available.  Some  knowl 
edge  of  botany  assists  in  dealing  with  the  vegetable 
world — with  all  growing  crops.  Chemistry  assists 
in  the  analysis  of  soils,  selection  and  application  of 
manures,  and  in  numerous  other  ways.  The  mechan 
ical  branches  of  natural  philosophy  are  ready  help  in 
almost  everything,  but  especially  in  reference  to  im 
plements  and  machinery. 

"The  thought  recurs  that  education — cultivated 
thought — can  best  be  combined  with  agricultural 
labor,  or  any  labor,  on  the  principle  of  thorough  work; 
that  careless,  half  performed,  slovenly  work  makes  no 
place  for  such  combination;  and  thorough  work,  again 
renders  sufficient  the  smallest  quantity  of  ground  to 
each  man;  and  this,  again,  conforms  to  what  must 
occur  in  a  world  less  inclined  to  wars  and  more  devoted 
to  the  arts  of  peace  than  heretofore.  Population  must 
increase  rapidly,  more  rapidly  than  in  former  times, 
and  ere  long  the  most  valuable  of  all  arts  will  be  the 
art  of  deriving  a  comfortable  subsistence  from  the 
smallest  area  of  soil.  No  community  whose  every 
member  possesses  this  art,  can  ever  be  the  victim  of  op- 


358  THE  VOICE  OF  LINCOLN 

pression  in  any  of  its  forms.  Such  community  will  be 
alike  independent  of  crowned  kings,  money  kings, 
and  land  kings. 

"The  ambition  for  broad  acres  leads  to  poor  farm 
ing,  even  with  men  of  energy.  I  scarcely  ever  knew 
a  mammoth  farm  to  sustain  itself,  much  less  to  return 
a  profit  upon  the  outlay.  I  have  more  than  once  known 
a  man  to  spend  a  respectable  fortune  upon  one,  fail, 
and  leave  it,  and  then  some  man  of  modest  aim  get 
a  small  fraction  of  the  ground,  and  make  a  good  living 
upon  it.  Mammoth  farms  are  like  tools  or  weapons 
which  are  too  heavy  to  be  handled;  ere  long  they  are 
thrown  aside  at  a  great  loss." 


RECONSTRUCTION 

From  the  last  public  address,  April  11,  1865. 

11 We  meet  this  evening  not  in  sorrow,  but  in  glad 
ness  of  heart.  The  evacuation  of  Petersburg  and 
Richmond,  and  the  surrender  of  the  principal  insur 
gent  army,  give  hope  of  a  righteous  and  speedy  peace, 
whose  joyous  expression  cannot  be  restrained.  In  the 
midst  of  this,  however,  He  from  whom  all  blessings 
flow  must  not  be  forgotten.  A  call  for  a  national 
thanksgiving  is  being  prepared,  and  will  be  duly  pro 
mulgated.  Nor  must  those  whose  harder  part  give 
us  the  cause  of  rejoicing  be  overlooked.  Their  honors 
must  not  be  parceled  out  with  others.  I  myself  was 
near  the  front,  and  had  the  high  pleasure  of  trans 
mitting  much  of  the  good  news  to  you;  but  no  part 
of  the  honor  for  plan  or  execution  is  mine.  To  Gen 
eral  Grant,  his  skilful  officers  and  brave  men,  all  be- 


LINCOLN'S  MISCELLANEOUS  VIEWS    359 

longs.    The  gallant  navy  stood  ready,  but  was  not  in 
reach  to  take  active  part. 

"The  new  constitution  of  Louisiana,  declaring 
emancipation  for  the  whole  State,  practically  applies 
the  proclamation  to  the  part  previously  excepted.  It 
does  not  adopt  apprenticeship  for  freed  people,  and 
it  is  silent,  as  it  could  not  well  be  otherwise,  about  the 
admission  of  members  to  Congress.  So  that,  as  it 
applies  to  Louisiana,  every  member  of  the  Cabinet 
fully  approved  the  plan.  The  message  went  to  Con 
gress,  and  I  received  many  commendations  of  the  plan, 
written  and  verbal,  and  not  a  single  objection  to  it 
from  any  professed  emancipationist  came  to  my  knowl 
edge  until  after  the  news  reached  Washington  that  the 
people  of  Louisiana  had  begun  to  move  in  accordance 
with  it.  From  about  July,  1862,  I  had  corresponded 
with  different  persons  supposed  to  be  interested  (in) 
seeking  a  reconstruction  of  a  State  government  for 
Louisiana.  When  the  message  of  1863,  with  the  plan 
before  mentioned,  reached  New  Orleans,  General 
Banks  wrote  me  that  he  was  confident  that  the  people, 
with  his  military  co-operation,  would  reconstruct  sub 
stantially  on  that  plan.  I  wrote  to  him  and  some  of 
them  to  try  it.  They  tried  it,  and  the  result  is  known. 
Such  has  been  my  only  agency  in  getting  up  the 
Louisiana  government. 

"As  to  sustaining  it,  my  promise  is  out,  as  before 
stated.  But  as  bad  promises  are  better  broken  than 
kept,  I  shall  treat  this  as  a  bad  promise,  and  break 
it  whenever  I  shall  be  convinced  that  keeping  it  is 
adverse  to  the  public  interest;  but  I  have  not  yet 
been  so  convinced.  I  have  been  shown  a  letter  on 
this  subject,  supposed  to  be  an  able  one,  in  which  the 


360  THE  VOICE  OF  LINCOLN 

writer  expresses  regret  that  my  mind  has  not  seemed 
to  be  definitely  fixed  on  the  question  whether  the 
seceded  States,  so-called,  are  in  the  Union  or  out  of 
it.  It  would  perhaps  add  astonishment  to  his  regret 
were  he  to  learn  that  since  I  have  found  professed 
Union  men  endeavoring  to  make  that  question,  I  have 
purposely  forborne  any  public  expression  upon  it. 
As  appears  to  me,  that  question  has  not  been,  nor 
yet  is,  a  practically  material  one,  and  that  any  dis 
cussion  of  it,  while  it  thus  remains  practically  imma 
terial,  could  have  no  effect  other  than  the  mischievous 
one  of  dividing  our  friends.  As  yet,  whatever  it  may 
hereafter  become,  that  question  is  bad  as  the  basis 
of  a  controversy,  and  good  for  nothing  at  all — a  merely 
pernicious  abstraction. 

"We  all  agree  that  the  seceded  States,  so-called, 
are  out  of  their  proper  practical  relation  with  the  Union, 
and  that  the  sole  object  of  the  government,  civil  and 
military,  in  regard  to  those  States,  is  to  again  get  them 
into  that  proper  practical  relation.  I  believe  that  it 
is  not  only  possible,  but  in  fact  easier,  to  do  this  with 
out  deciding  or  even  considering  whether  these  States 
have  ever  been  out  of  the  Union,  than  with  it.  Find 
ing  themselves  safely  at  home,  it  would  be  utterly 
immaterial  whether  they  had  ever  been  abroad.  Let 
us  all  join  in  doing  the  acts  necessary  to  restoring  the 
proper  practical  relations  between  these  States  and 
the  Union,  and  each  forever  after  innocently  indulge 
his  own  opinion  whether  in  doing  the  acts  he  brought 
the  States  from  without  into  the  Union,  or  only  gave 
them  proper  assistance,  they  never  having  been  out 
of  it.  The  amount  of  constituency,  so  to  speak,  on 
which  the  new  Louisiana  government  rests,  would 
be  more  satisfactory  to  all  if  it  contained  50,000  or 


LINCOLN'S  MISCELLANEOUS  VIEWS    361 

30,000,  or  even  20,000  instead  of  only  about  12,000, 
as  it  does.  It  is  also  unsatisfactory  to  some  that  the 
elective  franchise  is  not  given  to  the  colored  man.  I 
would  myself  prefer  that  it  were  now  conferred  on  the 
very  intelligent,  and  on  those  who  serve  our  cause  as 
soldiers. 

"Still,  the  question  is  not  whether  the  Louisiana 
government,  as  it  stands,  is  quite  all  that  is  desirable. 
The  question  is,  will  it  be  wiser  to  take  it  as  it  is  and 
help  to  improve  it,  or  to  reject  and  disperse  it?  Can 
Louisiana  be  brought  into  proper  practical  relation 
with  the  Union  sooner  by  sustaining  or  by  discarding 
her  new  State  government?  Some  twelve  thousand 
voters  in  the  heretofore  slave  State  of  Louisiana  have 
sworn  allegiance  to  the  Union,  assumed  to  be  the  right 
ful  political  power  of  the  State,  held  elections,  organized 
a  State  government,  adopted  a  free-State  constitu 
tion,  giving  the  benefit  of  public  schools  equally  to 
black  and  white,  and  empowering  the  legislature  to 
confer  the  elective  franchise  upon  the  colored  man. 
Their  legislature  has  already  voted  to  ratify  the  con 
stitutional  amendment  recently  passed  by  Congress, 
abolishing  slavery  throughout  the  nation.  These 
12,000  persons  are  thus  fully  committed  to  the  Union 
and  to  perpetual  freedom  in  the  State — committed 
to  the  very  things,  and  nearly  all  the  things,  the  na 
tion  wants — and  they  ask  the  nation's  recognition  and 
its  assistance  to  make  good  their  committal. 

"Now,  if  we  reject  and  spurn  them,  we  do  our  ut 
most  to  disorganize  and  disperse  them.  We,  in  effect, 
say  to  the  white  man:  You  are  worthless  or  worse; 
we  will  neither  help  you,  nor  be  helped  by  you.  To 
the  blacks  we  say:  This  cup  of  liberty  which  these, 
your  old  masters,  hold  to  your  lips  we  will  dash  from 


362  THE  VOICE  OF  LINCOLN 

you  and  leave  you  to  the  chances  of  gathering  the 
spilled  and  scattered  contents  in  some  vague  and  un 
defined  when,  where,  and  how.  If  this  course,  dis 
couraging  and  paralyzing  both  white  and  black,  has 
any  tendency  to  bring  Louisiana  into  proper  prac 
tical  relations  with  the  Union,  I  have  so  far  been  un 
able  to  perceive  it.  If,  on  the  contrary,  we  recognize 
and  sustain  the  new  government  of  Louisiana,  the 
converse  of  all  this  is  made  true.  We  encourage  the 
hearts  and  nerve  the  arms  of  the  12,000  to  adhere  to 
their  work,  and  argue  for  it,  and  proselyte  for  it,  and 
fight  for  it,  and  feed  it,  and  grow  it,  and  ripen  it  to 
a  complete  success.  The  colored  man,  too,  in  seeing 
all  united  for  him,  is  inspired  with  vigilance,  and  energy, 
and  daring,  to  the  same  end.  Grant  that  he  desires 
the  elective  franchise,  will  he  not  attain  it  sooner  by 
saving  the  already  advanced  steps  toward  it  than  by 
running  backward  over  them?  Concede  that  the 
new  government  of  Louisiana  is  only  what  it  should 
be  as  the  egg  is  to  the  fowl,  we  shall  sooner  have  the 
fowl  by  hatching  the  egg  than  by  smashing  it. 

" Again,  if  we  reject  Louisiana  we  also  reject  one 
vote  in  favor  of  the  proposed  amendment  to  the  na 
tional  Constitution.  To  meet  this  proposition  it  has 
been  argued  that  no  more  than  three-fourths  of  those 
States  which  have  not  attempted  secession  are  neces 
sary  to  validly  ratify  the  amendment.  I  do  not  commit 
myself  against  this  further  than  to  say  that  such  a 
ratification  would  be  questionable,  and  sure  to  be 
persistently  questioned,  while  a  ratification  by  three- 
fourths  of  all  the  States  would  be  unquestioned  and 
unquestionable.  I  repeat  the  question:  Can  Louisiana 
be  brought  into  proper  practical  relation  with  the 
Union  sooner  by  sustaining  or  by  discarding  her  new 


LINCOLN'S  MISCELLANEOUS  VIEWS    363 

State  government?  What  has  been  said  of  Louisiana 
will  apply  generally  to  other  States.  And  yet  so  great 
peculiarities  pertain  to  each  State,  and  such  important 
and  sudden  changes  occur  in  the  same  State,  and  withal 
so  new  and  unprecedented  is  the  whole  case  that  no 
exclusive  and  inflexible  plan  can  safely  be  prescribed 
as  to  details  and  collaterals.  Such  exclusive  and  in 
flexible  plan  would  surely  become  a  new  entangle 
ment.  Important  principles  may  and  must  be  in 
flexible.  In  the  present  situation,  as  the  phrase  goes, 
it  may  be  my  duty  to  make  some  new  announcement 
to  the  people  of  the  South.  I  am  considering,  and 
shall  not  fail  to  act  when  satisfied  that  action  will  be 
proper." 


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JUN  U  U85 

OCT  27   1936 

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,,. 

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FER      9  1940 

IMS1!!/     ffctn 

NOV  m  1946 

..- 

LD  21-100m-8,'34 

392425 


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UNIVERSITY  OF  CALIFORNIA  LIBRARY 


MMIM 


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